The Holy Metropolis of Belgium celebrated the memory of St. Paisios of Mount Athos on Saturday, July 13, 2019, at the homonymous parish, located on the outskirts of Brussels.
The Metropolitan of Belgium and Exarch of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Athenagoras, presided over the Divine Liturgy, accompanied by the priests and deacons of the Metropolis.
In his sermon Athenagoras referred to the form and life of St. Paisios, who, through simplicity and exercise, emerged into a world-renowned saint and strengthened with his outspokenness to God every one who appeals to His Grace.
The Ambassador of Greece to the Netherlands, Dimitrios Chronopoulos, who has completed his diplomatic mission in the Netherlands and is now being transferred to another diplomatic post, also attended the Divine Liturgy in the region of Lasne, where the parish is located.
Shortly before his departure, he hastened to take the blessing of Metropolitan Athenagoras, who thanked him for the good co-operation and wished him well to his new diplomatic mission with the embassies and to have the Grace of the honoured Saint Paisios.
Metropolitan Athenagoras confessed to the congregation that his visit to St. Paisios in the spring of 1990 remains in his memory, when, as a new deacon, had accompanied Metropolitan Elder Bartholomew of Chalcedon, and now Ecumenical Patriarch, on Mount Athos, in preparation for the journey of the late Patriarch Dimitrios in the Garden of the Virgin Mary. During this visit, Father Paisios prophesied the Patriarchy of Bartholomew by saying, “You will be the next Patriarch…”
