James (Iakovos) of Vatopedi (d. 1904)

James (Iakovos) of Vatopedi (d. 1904), with the secular name John Varsamas, was born in the village of Panagia on the island of Thasos in 1807. He came to Vatopedi Monastery in 1829. At his tonsure he received the name James, in place of John. For sixty years he was an excellent typikarios in the katholikon of the great monastery. He enjoyed the highest esteem from the numerous community, for the holiness of his life, his ethos, patience and grace.

In 1871, at the invitation of the Sultan in Constantinople, because of a cholera outbreak, he accompanied the Holy Girdle of the Mother of God on a special steamship that arrived in the monastery's bay. With the hieromonk Joseph and the monk Gerasimos he stayed with the Holy Girdle three months in Constantinople, performing blessings of water in homes and seeing many miracles of the Mother of God. They returned to the monastery with many gifts from the pious. He reposed on 2 February 1904, aged ninety-⁠seven. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.