David of Dionysiou

David of Dionysiou, with the secular name Dimos Floros, the son of Basil and Maria, was born in 1890 in the village of Ktistades in Arta. He said the most important thing his parents had taught him was to love God greatly. At five he saw heaven open and the angelic hosts and God's saints. He endured demonic snares without fear, always delivered by the sign of the cross and the invocation of the Mother of God. His parents did not let him become a monk and had him married; he had two children and property. He left everything and in 1952 came to the Garden of the Mother of God, saying, "I came to offer the Lord my old age, since I could not give him my youth." He stayed a few months at Gregoriou, then lived in community at Dionysiou, where he was tonsured a monk in 1955.

Although he came to the monastery old, he had a youthful longing for ascetic struggles. He was constantly saying "Bless" and "May it be blessed." He said with simplicity the "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." He had visions of angels and demons; the honourable cross, the Mother of God and Saint John the Forerunner protected him. He had filled his cell with crosses. His blessed simplicity saved him. When asked why not everyone sees the devil, he answered: "He appears to you too, but you do not see him. When a person has passions, malice and sins, he has the devil in his heart and mind. He appears only to the meek and humble; he fears them but can do nothing to them, because they are with Christ."

He was without ambition, vainglory or judgment, peaceful, sober and quiet; a big, simple, guileless child. On 5 February 1983, in the freezing winter, after an epidemic of influenza, his soul flew up like a little bird. The then abbot, Father Charalambos (d. 2000), said that many monks reading the Psalter beside his body were comforted with tears of compunction, a sign that his soul found a place in the glory of God. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.