Cornelius of Grigoriou

Cornelius of Grigoriou, a hierodeacon, beloved by all, with the secular name Charalambos Karamantzanis, son of Theodore, was born in Athens in 1924, of a poor family with many children. He had a brother, the hieromonk Athenagoras Olympites. In 1944 he left home secretly for the Holy Mountain. On 17 August 1945 he came to Gregoriou Monastery. In 1946 he was tonsured a monk and on 29 October 1946 ordained deacon by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Miletoupolis. He was very dear to the whole community and most of all to his abbot Bessarion (d. 1972). He was also a good vestment maker.

From childhood he had a rather sickly constitution. He suffered from acute myocarditis and rheumatism. His end was holy. He had prepared with Holy Unction and frequent Communion. He reposed during the vigil of the monastery's second feast, of Saint Anastasia the Roman, where a large part of her venerable, grace-⁠flowing relics is kept, on 29 October 1951, the same date on which five years earlier he had been ordained. The same day he was buried, the service again presided over by Metropolitan Hierotheos, in an atmosphere of deep emotion. Abbot Bessarion wrote to the sister of the blessed Cornelius: "With great grief and rending of heart I announce to you that my adored spiritual child and your beloved brother Cornelius the hierodeacon departed to the Lord yesterday very early in the morning and the funeral took place the same day. Unfortunately his heart was struck suddenly, as by lightning, and we could not transport him to Thessaloniki, since the doctors forbade the transport as very dangerous, lest he be left on the road... At the end he saw Saint Anastasia and cried to the brothers who were caring for him: 'Do you not see this young woman who came and brought me new clothes and took my old ones?' and within 5 minutes he died painlessly like a little bird." His brother Father Athenagoras wrote of him: "During the Divine Liturgy he closed his eyes and fell asleep in the Lord, fluttering toward Paradise, after previously, according to the abbot's testimony, seeing in a vision Saint Anastasia 'bringing him new white clothes and taking his old ones.' The funeral service was performed by the bishop Hierotheos, amid the general emotion of the fathers. All wept for him greatly. He was very dear to them, as they told me too, when I later visited the monastery several times. May his memory be eternal and his blessed little soul dance with the angels and saints." He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.