Joseph of Docheiariou

Joseph of Docheiariou, with the secular name Christos Spangos, son of Constantine, was born in 1920 at Spatharaioi on Samos, with eleven siblings. He graduated from the Ecclesiastical School of Corinth. When he said he would become a monk, his mother told him she would kill herself; he answered courageously, "Everyone has his own soul." Although his father and brothers had been ruined by circumstances, his mother's tears did not make him delay his departure.

He was tonsured a monk on the island of Patmos, at the great monastery of Saint John the Theologian, with the name Anthimos, and later into the great schema with the name Joseph by the venerable Elder Amphilochios Makris (d. 1970). For years he lived as a hermit in the retreat of Kouvari on Patmos. He followed Elder Gregory of Docheiariou to the Myrtia monastery in 1972, to Prousos in 1973 and on 20 May 1980 to Docheiariou Monastery. Father Theoktistos of Docheiariou says he was extremely merciful, exact in his monastic duties and fond of the services like no one else. Our neighbour, Father Palladios, adds: "He never gave up his rule, even when ill. He longed greatly to come to Athos. He served Father Michael (d. 1983) with great love. He was very simple, a man of great love, especially toward young monks. He calmed our thoughts."

He always begged God not to become a burden to the community. At the Pentecost vigil of 1981 he sat in his stall for the first time, since he did not feel well; in the long services he always stood and chanted beautifully. He did not want to see doctors, but he obeyed the abbot and went to the hospital in Thessaloniki, where he did not stay even a day. He reposed quietly on 4 June 1981, the Wednesday after Pentecost, taking with him the toils and sweat that for years he had been storing for the heavenly storehouse, without disturbing anyone, "the exact and merciful one." He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.