Daniel the Wondrous

Saint Daniel the Wondrous, a venerable monk, lived on Mount Athos in the time of Hatzi-⁠George, in the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a Greek and came to Athos about 1821. After venerating the Mother of God Portaitissa of Iviron and passing by the Great Lavra, he prayed to be guided by the Mother of God to a virtuous elder. Going towards Saint Anne, he took another path and came to the Cell of Saint Artemios, where the elder was very devout and a great ascetic. Soon he was tonsured a monk with the name Daniel.

Once, when taking bread from the oven, the poker stayed in the fire and the wood burned away. The elder told him: "Make the sign of the cross and go in to get it." Daniel went into the lit oven, took the red-⁠hot iron in his hands and came out without any burn and without a hair of his beard burned. Another time, a sick elder of the Vlach Cells, who found relief in cucumbers, came in winter looking for pickles; Daniel suddenly put before him six or seven fresh cucumbers and vanished, and the sick man was healed. In another winter, an elder caught in a snowstorm felt in the night that someone was embracing and warming him; it was Father Daniel, and in the morning the snow had melted around the rock. Our sources do not give the year of his repose. He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.