Bessarion of Larissa

Saint Bessarion II, Metropolitan of Larissa, was a merciful hierarch of sixteenth-⁠century Thessaly, a builder of bridges and churches and of the Dousikou Monastery. He is the patron saint of the city of Kalambaka and is commemorated on 15 September, together with another Bessarion, Metropolitan of Larissa.

Beginnings

He was born in 1489 or 1490 at Pyli (Porta) in Thessaly, into a pious and fairly well-⁠off family whose parents were named Sotirios and Maria. Some sources give his secular name as Vasileios Tsigaridas. After basic schooling he went at ten to Trikala, where the seat of the metropolis of Larissa was, placed himself under Metropolitan Mark's obedience and received the monastic habit. His devotion and dedication were quickly valued by his spiritual father, so he was ordained deacon and then priest, and Metropolitan Mark also saw to his further education. He also won the esteem of people by his works of charity.

In 1516-1517 Metropolitan Mark consecrated him bishop for Elassona and Domeniko, but at Elassona the inhabitants did not receive him, considering the election uncanonical, and asked the Patriarchate for another bishop. He returned to Trikala and continued his former life. In 1521, after the death of the exarch of the bishopric of Stagoi (today Kalambaka), the metropolitan sent him there at the request of the inhabitants, and he shepherded them as the flock had hoped, though there were also difficulties, among them the slanders of a priest named Dometios.

Metropolitan of Larissa

In 1527 Metropolitan Mark died and Bessarion was appointed his successor at the insistent demand of the clergy and people of Thessaly. From this see he worked throughout the metropolis: he cared for the shepherding of Christians, built churches, restored the order of the Church shaken by the Turkish conquest, ransomed many Christian captives from the Turks, opened roads as far as Epirus and built bridges over the rivers of the region, at Korakas on the Acheloos, at Sarakina near Kalambaka on the Peneios, and elsewhere. His best known work is the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, called Dousikou, on the slopes of Mount Koziakas a few kilometres from Pyli, built on the ruins of an older Byzantine monastery with the help of his brother Ignatius, Bishop of Kappoua and Fanari. The present katholikon was completed under Metropolitan Neophytos II of Larissa, his nephew.

Saint Bessarion fell asleep on 13 September 1540 and was buried in the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Agios Vissarionas, which now bears his name. His commemoration was fixed on 15 September, near the feasts of the Resurrection and the Exaltation of the Cross. His head is preserved as a relic at the Dousikou Monastery. He is the patron of the city of Kalambaka, where the cathedral bears his name, and churches of his are found in Trikala, Pyli, Larissa and Filippiada.

Another Bessarion

Metropolitan Bessarion I, called the former, shepherded at Larissa between 1490 and 1499. Little is known of him. His existence was established in 1920, when a fresco in the chapel of the Holy Unmercenaries in Trikala depicted seven holy archbishops of Larissa, among them the two Bessarions.