Gennadios of Dionysiou (d. 1933)

Gennadios of Dionysiou (d. 1933), with the secular name George Stamaterakis, was born in 1881 at Akoumia near Rethymno in Crete. As a young man he joined the community of Dionysiou Monastery in 1902, which he loved and served with zeal all his life. He was tonsured a monk in 1905. He was steward and assistant steward at the monastery's dependencies, in the monastery itself, and assistant to the abbot. He was a humble monk, without pretence, gentle and kind.

His fellow monk Lazarus writes: "From his mother's womb he was destined for Paradise. A rare phenomenon of monastic beauty for our time. He was full of humility, love and faith, from which springs the string of virtues. What virtue could you want that this most blessed man did not have?" All loved him for the monastic virtues that surrounded him. For a whole twelve years he lived in a cell dark even at midday, though he had another, sunny, bright and clean; he preferred the dark in order to be near the old abbot and serve him in his needs, always ready and present. His instructions and counsels were remembered by those who came to ask something from the storeroom; and before giving what was asked, he poured out good words from the depths of his heart, as grace gave him to speak to each according to his strength and state. He reposed on 17 June 1933, aged 52, in his own monastery, after many labours. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.