Damaskinos of St Anne's Skete

Damaskinos of St Anne's Skete (d. 1916) was from Aivali in Asia Minor. He was a disciple of Elder Onouphrios the Cypriot. He practised stillness in a cave between the huts of the Transfiguration of the Saviour and the Presentation of the Lord. With perfect stillness he cleansed his mind of everything earthly and became a teacher of the prayer of the mind. Burning with divine longing, he asked Father Menas the Mavrovouniote (d. 1916) for his blessing to go to a still more hesychast place, so as to devote himself more to Christ. Father Menas said to him: "I shall allow you to go to a quiet place, but within the holy ground of the skete. Above the hut of the Holy Trinity, toward the rocks, is a half-⁠collapsed hut; go there to be still, so that I too may have you as a consolation in this world, for we are children of the same spiritual father."

With great joy of soul he went and began to tear down the dry hut. Then he found three whole relics of venerable ascetics, fragrant. With mixed feelings of awe and joy he considered what to do. Then, praying, he saw three heavenly men who said to him: "Elder Damaskinos, if we had wanted the glory and praise of men, we would not have come to sit on these rocks, where we were deprived even of water, to find rest in the Kingdom of heaven. Therefore you will take these three relics and go and throw them in an unknown place, to remain there until the common resurrection, so that on the day of Judgment the God rich in gifts may reward us, who by his love made us worthy to remain in this place." So he did.

When he finished his hut, many fathers and youths came to learn the secrets of the prayer of the heart. His teachings were many, but have not been preserved, because no one thought to write them down. His disciples imitated him in asceticism and in the high work of the mind. In Great Lent, by old custom, the temperate fathers of St Anne's avoided leaving their huts. Elder Damaskinos learned from God that the last day of his life had come. By a visitor he informed Elder Onouphrios (d. 1921) to come to his hut. As soon as he arrived, he found him weeping. He asked him what he had to weep for. He answered that he wept because he was dying unrepentant, and gave him a book of Saint Ephraim the Syrian as a blessing. Astonished, Elder Onouphrios asked how he could say this, he who for so many years had struggled in prayer in stillness and whom so many people had been helped by his teachings. Then with many tears he said: "Yes, Elder Onouphrios, I have not repented, because I should have died as a disciple of the old Father Menas and been hidden in our hut and unknown..." He reposed in the Lord in 1916. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.