November 4, 2021, George Karslidis of Pontos | Greek Orthodox Matins & Divine Liturgy Live Stream

Our righteous father George (Karslidis) the New Confessor of Drama (π. Γεώργιος Καρσλίδης ) was born in Argyroupolis, Pontos in 1901 of pious parents, Savva Karslidis and Sophia. At baptism he received the name Athanasius. He is known to have been in Georgia, Armenia, and Russia before spending most of his life in the village of Sipsa (now identified as Taxiarches) in Drama of Northern Greece. He established a small monastery there and slept in the Lord November 4, 1959. He was glorified by the Patriarchate of Constantinople on November 2, 2008 at the Monastery of the Ascension in Sipsa. The elder was well known for his miracles and prophecies. The church commemorates his memory November 4. He is one of few saints known to bear an imprint of the sign of the cross on his skull.

While still being an infant, he was left orphaned and his grandparents looked after him and his two siblings; a brother and a sister. His brother did not treat him very well. Noticing that this was a problem his grandparents gave him to a Turkish family to look after him at an early age. When he was seven years old, his grandmother, being a devout Christian, took him on a pilgrimage to an ancient and famous monastery in the Pontos area; the Panagia Soumela. In 1930, he permanently settled in the village of Sipsa in Drama, where he had quite a few acquaintances such as his first cousin, Elder Gregory Kiourtsides. He did not have much of an estate bringing only a few previous items; a few ecclesiastical books, priestly vestments, icons and a portion of the relics of his sister Anna.

In 1936, the Elder went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He visited many monasteries and also visited the Jordan River. At one of the hermitages near the Monastery of St. Savva he met in a wondrous way an ascetic who was his uncle. God enlightened the ascetic and revealed to him that the young clergyman passing by was his nephew. In 1938, the Ministry of Agriculture granted four stremmata of land to the Elder. With the assistance of the villagers he built a little church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos. With the ever present help of the inhabitants, the construction of the monastery took place in the following year until eventually the consecration of the monastery church took place September 14, 1939.In 1941, the Bulgarians captured the elder and led him to be butchered. He followed without protest and when they arrived at the place, he prayed and with calmness asked them to proceed with their work. They abandoned him out of fear and ran away.

Epistle Reading: Philippians 3:1-8
Brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not irksome to me, and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evil-workers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.

Gospel Reading: Luke 11:47-54; 12:1
The Lord said to the Jews who had come to him, “Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say. In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Watch live from the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Isidoroi on Lycabettus Hill, the Matins/Orthros and the Divine Liturgy