Makarios the Athonite

Makarios the Athonite, an ascetic and hieromonk of Kalymnos, with the family name Koulianos, struggled for decades on the Holy Mountain. In 1899 this serene man of God, a biblical faster, returned to his island at the age of eighty-⁠seven. Why did the aged Athonite leave the Garden of the Mother of God? A short biography answers: "He left the spiritual grandeur of the Holy Mountain obeying the instruction repeated for five years by the All-⁠Holy Mother of God." So the Mother of God repeatedly told him to leave her Garden. Fearing some well-⁠laid demonic trap, for five years he prayed fervently whether it was God's will that he go out into the world. The Mother of God assured him with certainty of this departure.

The elder tonsured the nun Makaria (d. 1952) in 1899. Ten pious young women followed her, who founded the monastery of Saint Catherine. He also established the sisterhood of Saint Sophia. The Mother of God sent him, then, to Kalymnos to establish its women's monasticism. At the same time another Athonite reached Kalymnos, the hieromonk Cyril, a native of the neighbouring island of Kos, who had struggled several years on the Holy Mountain. He was an unacquisitive, merciful and loving confessor. He was confessor of the Evangelistria convent at Argos on Kalymnos, whose first abbess was the very virtuous Gerontissa Magdalene, who reposed at 105 in 1952.

The blessed Elder Makarios had a holy end. "The Lord, the judge of contests, called to himself the tried and God-⁠bearing Elder Makarios to reward him for his struggle on earth. Satisfied with his modest contribution to women's monasticism on Kalymnos, he repeated with emotion the words of Saint Symeon the God-⁠Receiver: 'Now lettest thou thy servant depart, O Lord...' and gave up his spirit into the hands of his Saviour on 10 November 1913." He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.