Philaretos Dusa (Ntousas)

Saint Philaretos Dusa (Ntousas), a venerable monk, was born in Transylvania, in Romania, in 1892, with the name Nicholas, the son of John and Maria. In 1912, at twenty, he came to Athos and was tonsured a monk in the Cell of Saint Hypatios of Vatopedi, receiving the name Philaretos. He stayed there eight years, and in 1920 moved to the Cell of Saint Andrew at Kapsala, of Stavronikita, to the elder Modestos, whom he cared for and from whom he received a blessing. In that cell he ended his struggle.

Father Paisios, who knew him in 1968, saw him standing, leaning on the railing with his prayer rope in his hand, suffering from shortness of breath. He accepted nothing: "The Mother of God supplies what I need." For any gift left secretly he did far more prostrations and prayer rope than the gift was worth, to pray for the giver. For fifteen years, until he himself fell into bed, he served his disciple Father Bartholomew, ill with Parkinson's disease, though he himself was seventy-⁠eight. The fathers invited him to monasteries, but he did not wish to leave his cell. One day Paisios noticed an unusual fragrance in the cell and found him collapsed. He then saw a bright, child-⁠like face leaving for heaven and understood that his soul had reposed in the Lord. It was 1 June 1975; Philaretos was eighty-⁠three. He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.