Christodoulos of Katounakia

Christodoulos of Katounakia, with the secular name Christos Kontonikolos, was born in 1894 at Lamia. As a young man he worked as a shoemaker at Chalkida. Left fatherless at ten, he was nurtured in piety by his mother, who died as a schema-⁠nun with the name Magdalene. In 1923 he entered the Athonite arena with divine longing. His desert-⁠loving soul clung to Katounakia, the quiet and utterly deserted place, where there is no greenery, no trees, no birds, only rocks. The wildness of the place gives holiness to wounded souls, like sparrows of heaven. At the feet of the sober hesychast Kallinikos (d. 1930) he found a skilled teacher in obedience and the prayer of the mind. Here human comforts are absent: no spring water, at the daily table dry rusk, the schedule exhausting, the toil great, the place desolate, the continual cutting off of one's own will a bloodless martyrdom. He was tonsured a monk in 1924.

Yet there are secret joys, small or great, from prayer, obedience and ascesis. The Jesus Prayer, the elder's blessing and divine worship adorned his soul with grace. He kept the words he heard at his tonsure and endured "every affliction and constraint of the solitary life for the Kingdom of heaven" with God's help. This very strict monastic life was for very few, and Father Christodoulos was one of the very few; he recalled the ancient abbas of Nitria. Their elder was very severe. Among his counsels to his disciples: "If you fast, commune, read, and have no love, all is nothing, for God is love. Imitate one another's good qualities, and for others' weaknesses pray that God have mercy on them."

He reposed on 23 April 1982, this great ascetic of the twentieth century, keeper of the unadulterated monastic tradition, lover of fathers, brothers, disciples and people, who strove to benefit by patristic words and holy examples and not by harsh penances. He was quite strict with himself and lenient with others: a fine picture of meekness and holiness. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.