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Tuesday, July 12, 2022

On the Monk Who Pretended He Was Demon Possessed (St. Paisios the Athonite)


In the old days there were Fathers who even pretended to be demon possessed, in order to hide their virtue and spoil the good opinion others had of them.

When I was in Philotheou Monastery [1956-1958], which was idiorhythmic at the time, there was a Father who had previously been an ascetic in Vigla.*

He, as soon as he realized that the Fathers there had taken a whiff of his asceticism and his spiritual advancement, left with the blessing of his spiritual father.