John Triantaphyllides

Father John Triantaphyllides was a priest of Chaldia, in Pontus in Asia Minor, born in 1836 and fallen asleep on 13 June 1903, called the New Chrysostom for his gift of preaching and the New Merciful for his almsgiving. He is honoured by the faithful, especially the Pontic Greeks, as a saint, with no known canonization; he is commemorated on 13 June and on 7 October, the day his relics were found.

Life

He was born on 10 February 1836 in the village of Loria (Mouzena), in the region of Trebizond, to Triantaphyllos and Kyriaki. The village had no school, and he learned the letters from a literate man in six months, being very intelligent. At fourteen he lost his father and had to go to the Pontic coast to work: in a bakery in winter, in the fields in summer. At seventeen he married a humble young woman named Helen, with whom he had a son and daughters.

One summer he was walking to his village with his wife when they met three angels in the form of men. John was walking ahead. The angels looked at him but did not speak. Then one said to Helen: "The villagers are waiting for John to become a priest. This is the will of God." The second: "After thirty years you will be found worthy to venerate in the Holy Land." The third: "After his repose he will be numbered among the saints." She asked in amazement how they knew the future, and they answered that they were angels sent to warn John not to refuse the mystery of the priesthood.

In 1870, at thirty-⁠four, he was ordained priest by Metropolitan Gervasios of Chaldia and placed as parish priest in his own village, where he served in the churches of St Panteleimon, the Mother of God and the Monastery of St George. Though little educated, he learned the order of the services well from the monks of the Monastery of St George at Choutoura. He had a gift of speaking: whoever spoke with him felt joy, and his preaching dripped with sweetness and grace, which is why he was called "the New Chrysostom".

Almsgiving and reconciliation

Though poor himself, he fed the hungry, clothed the poor and orphans and gave hospitality to strangers. He helped the poor of the village pay their taxes and built roads, bridges and fountains for its good. In 1877, during the Russo-⁠Turkish War, he wrote to rich friends, gathered what was necessary and distributed it to the poor, saving them from starvation; from then he was called "the New Merciful". He had the gift of reconciling enemies. When people or whole villages came to the Metropolitan with their quarrels, he sent them to John: "Go to him. He will reconcile you, because he is wise, he has a sweet tongue and divine grace." They came as enemies seeking revenge and left as brothers.

One example: his orphan grandchild, left by his daughter, made a mischief at school and the teacher beat him with a rod and kicked him; a few days later the child died. The child's father and relatives wanted to kill the teacher, but Father John prayed much, pleaded in court, calmed the relatives and had the teacher released from prison. As a grieving grandfather but a disciple of Christ, he forgave.

Repose and relics

In 1900, with his priest's wife, he was found worthy to venerate the Holy Sepulchre, Golgotha and the Holy Land, spending six months there, thirty years after the angels' prediction. Helen died on 26 July 1902. Father John, after thirty-⁠three years of shepherding, fell asleep in the Lord on Friday, 13 June 1903, and was buried at the church of St Panteleimon. After the burial a daughter-⁠in-⁠law of his saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove on his grave.

Three years later he appeared in a dream to a woman named Panagila and told her to move his relics with her brother; this took place on 7 October 1906. When they went to the cemetery they saw him standing above his grave in priestly vestments, reading the Gospel, his face shining like the sun, and he told them to dig. Many people had gathered, and saw Panagila speak with someone they could not see and thought her mad. When the relics were found, both hands were incorrupt. The news spread through Chaldia; every day crowds came, whole villages with their priests, and even Turkish agas, to venerate, bringing oil and candles. The Turks said: "This priest effendi was a saint even alive, and after death seems more so. If you build a church for him we will make an offering too." Healings followed: a young man from Mikhailovo near Tbilisi, driven mad, was healed after his mother, instructed in a dream by the saint, gave him water with soil from his grave; an Armenian child, mute for four years, began to speak after drinking water with soil from his grave, and his father, a communist, came to believe.

His descendants came to Greece as refugees and brought the saint's hand and skull, which continue to work miracles.