Melchizedek of New Skete

Melchizedek of New Skete, a hieromonk, with the secular name Emmanuel, was born in 1875 at Vourla in Asia Minor. He became a monk in 1908 in Jerusalem, where he was ordained deacon and priest. There Elder Joachim of the New Skete (d. 1943) met him and admired him as a most ascetic struggler, living in the wilderness of the Dead Sea and fasting 33 days without eating anything: "He follows the ascetic life with self-⁠denial. He made a deep impression on me. His body was completely dried, a skeleton covered with skin, and his words were few and with grace." He came to the New Skete in 1933 and took the hermitage of Damaskinos, living a life without consolation, very ascetic and wonderful.

According to Elder Joseph of Vatopedi (d. 2009), he was "a struggler, full of the fear of God and faith. This most devout elder was adorned with the grace of the priesthood, which he honoured by his pure and exact life. But he struggled very much in fasting and mourning, which he always kept unceasingly. Knowing that solitude and stillness are necessary elements of mourning and lament, he always tried to stay in remote and unknown places, to avoid pointless contacts and dissipation. He knew from experience industry as a source of grace and did not shrink from toil and privation, after the example of our old fathers..." So he was the thrice-⁠blessed cross-⁠bearer and Christ-⁠bearer. Zealous and hardworking, without ambition, wise. He had as good companions the unforced, warm tears from the heart, as in Saint John of the Ladder. Silent and of few words, an extreme faster and strict fighter all his life, a cave-⁠dweller, hermit and homeless, who had nothing to bequeath to anyone. In 1937 he received the great and angelic schema of the monks. After a few months he reposed in the Lord in the hut of the Presentation with a holy end, on 20 November 1937. The old fathers of the New Skete relate that at his funeral and until burial the ascetic body of the humble hieromonk Melchizedek gave off a wonderful fragrance. How could it not, my brothers? Virtue always has a fragrance. Virtue hidden from men is revealed by God in a wonderful way. So the spiritual law works without fail. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.