Elias of Karyes

Elias of Karyes, with the secular name Elias Apostolidis, the son of Sotirios and Konstantina, was born in 1907 at Giure in Korçë, Northern Epirus. He came to the Holy Mountain in 1918, at only eleven, and was tonsured a monk in 1922 in the Koutloumousiou cell of the Entrance of the Theotokos at Karyes. Fathers from Mytilene lived there: Damian (d. 1939), Kosmas (d. 1940) and Damian (d. 1946). He was industrious, hardworking and fond of the brothers, as were his elders.

He never went out into the world, except at the end of his life, from great need: his disciples took him to the hospital, to the doctors. He had great devotion to the Mother of God. He sensed his end and told his companions: "On the day of the Mother of God, of the Akathist, I will depart." So it happened. Father Anastasios of Karyes writes in his Diptychs: "Old Elias. Harmless, hidden, monkish in everything. On the day of his death he called the elder and the fathers from the monastery, greeted them and after a short while gave up his soul. A faster but also a very good cook, he lived in want and poverty, but always hospitable; his life hard but full of love." He reposed in the Lord on 1 April 1994. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.