Dionysios of St Anne's Skete

Dionysios of St Anne's Skete, with the secular name Seraphim Psaras, was born in 1878 at Madytos in Eastern Thrace, to pious parents. He came in 1894 to the hut of the Holy Hieromartyr Seraphim in Saint Anne's Skete. He was tonsured a monk by Elder Gelasios in 1900. In 1911 he was ordained priest and made a confessor. He was a confessor of the faith. He submitted to King George II the protest of the Athonite fathers against the change of the calendar. He was also a good icon painter.

Elder Cherubim recounts in his Nostalgic Memories of the Garden of the Mother of God: "As the saints of all times are characterized by simplicity, so too the blessed man, Father Dionysios the confessor. He had come to the Mountain as a child. He was a good confessor, clear mind, simple heart. Prayer and tears, fasting and his almost enclosed life had graced him. Once my elder sent me to his hut for some work. When the hour of the meal approached, he proposed that I sit with them at table. I declined his kind invitation, and he, to get me out of the difficulty, sent his young disciple to ask my elder whether I had a blessing to stay with them that noon. My elder loved and esteemed Father Dionysios much and gladly allowed me. At table one of the brothers was reading. The reading was very interesting. At one moment the blessed confessor wished to add a few thoughts on the subject of the reading. But he was deeply moved and dissolved into tears, followed by sobs. At last he left the refectory and withdrew to his cell. And the rest of us could not remain unmoved, both by what we had heard in the reading and by the elder's deep feeling, and naturally followed in weeping..." He is buried in the skete cemetery, where he lived more than half a century.

Elder Dionysios had as disciples Seraphim and Euthymios (d. 1999), later abbot of Esphigmenou Monastery, who writes of him in his Memoirs: He was very devout, simple and guileless. Poor, a lover of God, of the brothers, of children, of the Mother of God, and good-⁠hearted. Very ascetic. When he was to celebrate, from the evening he ate only a fruit or a warm drink. He had divine zeal, a merciful heart, deep humility and great temperance. Innocent like a small child. Before his repose he saw in a vision the All-⁠Holy Mother of God, whom he loved exceedingly. He reposed in 1948. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.