Saint Anthimos the Serpent-Hunter of Kefallonia

Venerable Anthimos Kourouklis, the Blind Ascetic of Kefallonia, who reposed on September 4th 1782, is also associated with the Greek island of Astypalea where he did missionary work and performed a number of miracles. It was here that he helped exterminate a huge serpent that nested in a small cave in the northeast of the island, known to this day as Drakospilia or Drakontospilaio (translated as Dragon Cave).

The serpent instilled such fear in the inhabitants that the entire area beyond the narrow part of the island was uninhabited. The Saint advised them to cultivate the rest of the island in order to survive; however, he encountered their resistance due to the serpent. Then Anthimos, accompanied by a few faithful witnesses to the remarkable miracle that followed, crossed the narrow passage of the island and reached an elevation from where the cave of the dragon could be discerned.

Against the Fear of Ghosts (Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko)

Against the Fear of Ghosts 

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

"And when the disciples saw [Jesus] walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, 'It is a ghost!' And they cried out for fear" (Matt. 14:26).

We have many bad habits, customs, and rituals that have remained from ancient times, when our ancestors were still pagans. However, what is characteristic of pagans is improper for us Christians. For example, many of us suffer from a fear of ghosts. They are afraid to be alone in a room at night, and they even fear stepping outside into the darkness; every dark corner appears to them as a dread specter. In places where a corpse lay just a few days ago, or when passing through a cemetery at night, such fear knows no bounds. Likewise, how much timidity and fear are felt upon entering a forest or any secluded place! "Fear has big eyes," as the Russian proverb goes; thus, the slightest noise or rustle in a deserted area, especially at night, the echo in the forest, the shadow of a tree swaying in the wind — all of this sends the soul into indescribable shudders. Consequently, it often happens that extraordinary phenomena are perceived in places where, in reality, they do not exist at all.

Walnut Leaves at Pentecost and the Souls of the Dead

Popular Belief

According to a popular Greek Orthodox Christian folk belief, the souls of the dead in Hades ascend to the upper world every Easter for fifty days. Pentecost is the last day of the journey of the dead, the day they return to Hades. 

At the time of kneeling during the service of Pentecost Monday, when the souls of the dead return to the underworld, the living close their eyes so as not to see the souls that sadly return to Hades. People kneel on walnut leaves because they symbolize the bitterness that possesses the souls of the dead on this day, since the leaves are bitter.

They say that in Ancient Greece it was believed that the walnut tree with its deep green (black-green) color was the tree of the god Pluto (Hades), that it was the only tree in Hades, and that in its shade their souls lay down and rested. 

The Spiritual World: On the Existence of Demons (17)

Ivan Nikolaevich Ponomarev

...continued from part sixteen.

15. In “Memories of the Polish Rebellion of 1863” by Mr. I. N. Ponomarev, in the September issue of the “Istorichesky Vestnik” for 1896, the author recounts the following inexplicable fact, which he himself witnessed, together with the officers of the Uhlan Regiment, where the author was released from the corps shortly before the start of the 1863 uprising.

The author tells us:

The third squadron, in which I was, was assigned to camp in the village of Kvitki, located ten miles from the headquarters that remained in the city of Korsun (Kiev province). The large village consisted of several hundred houses, and since in Little Russia almost every house has a garden, Kvitki, buried in greenery, occupied several miles in circumference. The quartermasters who met us announced that there were no comfortable apartments for the officers, and the only tolerable premises were allocated for the squadron commander, adding that there was a good private residence, but they did not dare to occupy it either.

The Spiritual World: On the Existence of Demons (16)

Yelets Monastery in Chernigov

...continued from part fifteen.

14 . Mysterious Phenomena in Chernigov in the 1840's*

The following took place in 1843 or 44 (I don’t remember exactly), in Chernigov, in the house of my uncle (on my aunt’s side), the priest Father John Gerasimovich Menailov.

Father John was known and revered in Chernigov as a priest of the strictest life, always ready to be there and with those to whom he was needed; he was considered a saint.

At the same time, I was in the district theological school and was a singer in the Yelets singing choir (the rector’s choir of the seminary), which lived in the Yelets Monastery in Chernigov.

As a nephew of Mother Menailova, I went to them every Sunday and feast day and spent the whole day with them until evening. The Menailov family consisted of a husband, wife, two sons, two daughters, and a niece, my cousin, Anna Emelianovna Kornukh, who lived with them temporarily. There was one servant, a tall, healthy girl, not in her first youth, a local native.