John of St Anne's Skete

John of St Anne's Skete, with the secular name Demetrius Karachalios, the son of Constantine and Theodora, was born in 1898 at Riolo in Achaia. He was married. He was slandered as having killed his wife and was sentenced to death. The Germans sent him to the dreadful camp at Dachau, from which few came out alive. He prayed with fervent faith that the Mother of God help him be saved, and promised that if he survived he would become a monk.

Keeping his promise, without understanding exactly how he was saved, he came to the Garden of the Mother of God and chose to live in the skete of Saint Anne, in 1951. In the same year he was tonsured a monk in the hut of the Entrance of the Theotokos belonging to Elder Dionysios. He chose one of the most difficult and wearisome places; to get there one must surely shed much sweat. Then he moved to the hut of Saint Panteleimon, beside the holy spring of the venerable Gerontios, founder of the largest skete on Athos.

He was a great ascetic. He was skilled in carpentry and helped the fathers in their needs, earning his daily bread. He progressed spiritually quite far, to the point of seeing the hearts of people. Once he made a deep prostration to a young pilgrim; when the young man was surprised, he said: "I bow to your virginity." He reposed because of the cold on 7 February 1976. These things were told by the fathers of the brotherhood of the Theoleptoi, in the hut of the Forerunner, where he had worked. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.