Chrysostomos of Dionysiou

Chrysostomos of Dionysiou, a hieromonk, was originally from Varna in Bulgaria. He graduated from the Great School of the Nation, the Theological School of Halki and the University of Erlangen in Germany. He knew Bulgarian, Latin, German, French, Russian, English and Turkish. In 1909 he came to Dionysiou Monastery and was tonsured a monk. After two years he was called by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where he was ordained deacon and priest and sent to Bulgaria as a preacher. There he fell into great difficulties, adventures and temptations. He returned to his monastery and took on duties as superior and secretary. During the Anglo-⁠French occupation (1916-1917) he was chief secretary of the Holy Community and, by his education and polyglotism, proved especially useful to the Holy Mountain. He was a professor at the Holy Cross School in Jerusalem, headmaster of the gymnasium of Symi, professor at the Saint Anastasia Vasilika seminary in Thessaloniki, at the invitation of Metropolitan Irenaeus of Cassandreia (d. 1945), and at the Athoniada Academy.

According to Abbot Gabriel of Dionysiou (d. 1983): "this blessed man reached such a height of humility that he always asked the brothers even about trifles, and his dispassion became proverbial in our community and on the Holy Mountain generally. No one ever saw him at Karyes, as chief secretary of the Holy Community or as professor at the Athoniada, angry, much less demanding even the slightest honour." When the French government awarded him the decoration of the Legion, he at once dedicated it to the icon of the Mother of God "Axion Estin," saying that "everything an Athonite monk has belongs to his great Mother, the Panagia." Near the end of his life he was for a long time doorkeeper of the monastery, and wild doves came familiarly to the gatehouse and ate crumbs of bread from his palm without fear. He reposed in the monastery's infirmary on 28 September 1933, aged 73; "Chrysostomos, the renowned teacher, the simple, the harmless, the whole like a dove." Once more it was confirmed that learning can be combined completely with holiness. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.