Feast day of Saint Amphilochios Makris of Patmos, April the 16th/Εορτή του Αγίου Αμφιλοχίου Μακρή, εκ Πάτμου, 16 Απριλίου

Γιορτή σήμερα – 16 Απριλίου: Όσιος Αμφιλόχιος Μακρής της Ιεράς Νήσου Πάτμου – Στην αγιοκατάταξη του γέροντα Αμφιλοχίου Μακρή της Πάτμου, προχώρησε στις 29 Αυγούστου 2018 μ.Χ. η Αγία και Ιερά Σύνοδος του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου.

Ο Όσιος Αμφιλόχιος Μακρής (κατά κόσμον Αθανάσιος Μακρής) γεννήθηκε στις 13 Φεβρουαρίου του 1889 μ.Χ. στην Πάτμο.

Η μοναχική του κουρά έγινε στις 27 Αυγούστου του 1906 μ.Χ. στην Ιερά Μονή του Θεολόγου όπου έλαβε το όνομα Αμφιλόχιος.

Στις 23 Μαρτίου του 1913 μ.Χ. σε ηλικία 24 ετών κείρεται στο Κάθισμα του Απολλώ Μεγαλόσχημος Μοναχός από τον ασκητή και πνευματικό Μακάριο Αντωνιάδη τον Σάμιο.

St father Amphilochios (Makris) of Patmos
Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia
“When I was a deacon at the Monastery of St John the Theologian on Patmos in the 1960’s, our geronta or elder, Father Amphilochios (who died in 1970), used to say to us, “Do you know that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment, ‘Love the trees.’” Whoever does not love the trees, so he believed, does not love Christ. “When you plant a tree,” he told us, “you plant hope, you plant peace, you plant love, and you will receive God’s blessing.”
An ecologist long before ecology had become fashionable, when hearing the confessions of the local farmers, Father Amphilochios used to assign to them as a penance the task of planting a tree. Nor was this all. He would himself go around the island to see how they were carrying out their penance, whether they were keeping their tree-penance properly watered, whether they were making sure that it was not eaten by goats. Under his influence, the centre of the island has been transformed: where, a century ago, there were bare and barren slopes, today there are flourishing groves of pine and eucalyptus. “Love the trees,” Father Amphilochios insisted. Do we not find there, in his emphasis upon love, the answer to the ecological problem? We cannot save what we do not love.”