Hilarion of the Xenophontos Skete

Hilarion of the Xenophontos Skete (1877 - 1 August 1957), with the secular name Gregory Pounis, son of George and Vasiliki, was born in 1877 at Ofrynion (Reghioi) near the Dardanelles. About twenty monks had come to Athos from Ofrynion, known for their learning and virtue. In Ofrynion all the inhabitants were Christians. In 1896 he came to the Holy Mountain and lived in the hut of the Holy Apostles in the skete of the Annunciation of Xenophontos, because the elder of the hut was the virtuous hieromonk Akakios (d. 1927), who was a relative, as well as the brothers Gregory and Hilarion, former Lavriotes and compatriots, and Elder Gregory (d. 1990), who told us all this. He was tonsured a monk in 1898.

For a time he lived with an ascetic at Karyes, then went briefly to Jerusalem on various pilgrimages. At the monastery of Saint Theodosios he was attacked by Arabs and had to leave. He then lived in the hut of a Russian, Dositheos, in the skete of Xenophontos. The last four years of his life he spent again in the hut of the Holy Apostles. All recognized him as a virtuous monk. Because he had left the hut, the elders gave him as a rule to build terraces. All day he built, composing his hymns in his mind, and at night he wrote them on paper.

He also engaged in hymnography. His hymnographic work survives in two manuscript volumes. He himself writes: "Laying stones in the wall, I composed in my mind one or two or more troparia and, remembering them, wrote them in the evening, and working so for many years I completed the first volume you hold in your hands." The hymnographer, chanter and very austere monk Hilarion reposed in the Lord on 1 August 1957. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.