Elpidios the Cypriot

Saint Elpidios the Cypriot, a venerable monk, was born in 1913 at Nicosia in Cyprus, with the name Alexander Chasapis, to very pious parents. He was the twin brother of the Holy New Hieromartyr Philoumenos of Jerusalem (died 1979). From childhood he and his brother warmly loved the reading of the Fathers. He knew all the psalms by heart. The Life of Saint John the Hut-⁠dweller so enthused them that at fourteen he led them to the Stavrovouni Monastery. For six years the two zealous youths struggled there wonderfully, then left for Jerusalem, where they entered the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre as guardians of the holy places. In 1937 Elpidios was ordained deacon, in 1940 priest. For five years he served the Patriarchate of Alexandria. He worked fruitfully in England, Russia, Cyprus, as preacher of Paphos and abbot of Machairas, and in Athens. He was tonsured into the great schema in 1969.

He spent the last seven years of his life, according to his ever-⁠burning wish, in the Cell of the Annunciation of the New Skete. Here he gave himself entirely to prayer: daily services in the little chapel of the Mother of God, supplications, prayers, endless prayer rope. He had a special devotion to the Mother of God. His prayer worked miracles: he blessed the table of the poor and it multiplied, he blessed the sick and they were healed without surgery. His disciples saw him serve without touching the ground, bathed in light. He systematically hid his virtue. A year before his death he said: "I rejoice, I give thanks and I glorify God that at the sunset of my life I am in this beautiful skete of the Holy Mountain." He fell asleep in the Lord on 18 November 1983. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol said that in the coffin his face had the expression of a man who had won a great struggle. He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.