Dimas the Russian

Dimas the Russian was a Russian monk of the skete of Kavsokalyvia of the Great Lavra, who reposed on 11/24 January 1929. He lived in the hut of the Forerunner, in asceticism, hardship, hiddenness, inglory, privation and temptations. Father Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, speaking of this "hidden saint," says: "Above our hut, very high up, lived a Russian, Old Dimas, in a primitive hut, alone. He was very devout. Old Dimas remained almost unknown all his life. No one mentions his name or his gift. To leave Russia. Who knows how many days' journey he made. He left everything to come to an edge of the world, to Kavsokalyvia, and lived there all his life. And he died unknown. He was not an egoist. No, no, he was a fighter. And to have no one beside him to tell: 'Five hundred prostrations I made today. This is what I felt...' He was a secret fighter."

The dry hut of the Forerunner in the skete of Kavsokalyvia, in which the venerable ascetic Dimas the Russian lived from 1893 to 1928... Father Porphyrios relates that he received a great outpouring of grace when he saw Old Dimas in the kyriakon making prostrations and dissolving in sobs in his prayer: "One morning, about half past three, I went to the katholikon for the service. It was still early, the semantron had not sounded, no one was in the church. I sat in the narthex, under a stair, unseen, and prayed. At one moment the door of the church opened and a tall, elderly monk came in. It was Old Dimas. As he entered, he looked right and left and saw no one. Then, holding a large prayer rope, he began full prostrations, many and fast, and said constantly: 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me... Most Holy Theotokos, save us.' Soon he fell into ecstasy. I cannot describe his conduct toward God: movements of love and worship, of divine longing and devotion. I saw him stand, raising his hands in the form of a cross, like Moses at the sea." Dimas lived in his hut from 1893 to 1928. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.