Abbot Aimilianos of Simonos Petra

Abbot Aimilianos of Simonos Petra

The Elder Archimandrite Aimilianos (Vafeidis) (October 1934 – May 9, 2019), monastic, was the abbot of Simonopetra Monastery from 1974 to 2000. As a young monk, Elder Aimilianos looked forward to a career as a foreign missionary. Assigned to a monastery, the Elder experienced a spiritual crisis from which he emerged a man, supremely energized, and dedicated to revitalization of monastic life.

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Aimilianos_(Vafeidis)

"So, out of the grave, from the mystical formation which occurred in the womb of Christ’s death, there grew the choicest thing our Church has: its virginal people, this new generation of monastics.

Who can understand how souls are begotten in a virginal manner? How many were able to understand that the Virgin gave birth to Christ?"
https://pemptousia.com/2019/05/on-the-lords-resurrection/\
Sermon of Abbot Aimilianos

One of the elder’s spiritual children, His Grace Bishop Emilianos of Meloa of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia wrote:
"It was everywhere, this spirit of Geronda Aimilianos. And when I say that I felt happiness, freedom, and love, I mean that I felt that if I were to stay there, I wouldn’t be depressed; I would find the purpose of my life; I would find something that would help me develop as a person, be happy, and probably do what God wants me to do. I had never felt like this anywhere else in the world."

"What Geronda Aimilianos could do to your soul was to give you the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t his love and his freedom. These qualities are from God, of course. God is love, God is freedom, God is joy. But he could give you the Holy Spirit. He could install the Holy Spirit in your soul."

"He taught us how to have a connection with the Holy Trinity. That’s what he taught us. That’s what he engraved inside us. And if this is the case, after a certain point, your spiritual father, your geronda, becomes the Holy Spirit."

"The brotherhood started thirty years earlier at Meteora, where Geronda Aimilianos was the abbot of the Great Meteoron, the largest monastery there. The person whom he wanted to put in charge back then is the one who ended up being in charge afterwards. He was still a layman at the time, but Geronda Aimilianos put him in charge when he himself was away from the monastery. The monks would have to get the blessing of this layman—not an actual blessing, but they had to ask permission to do things when Geronda Aimilianos wasn’t around. He always wanted to make this man the abbot of Simonopetra so he could retire, but he—Elder Eliseos—was a very humble man, and he thought he couldn’t take over from Geronda Aimilianos. It was too difficult to continue what Geronda had started, so he always avoided it. Then Geronda Aimilianos fell sick; when the elections happened a few years after he got sick, every monk who had been tonsured by Geronda Aimilianos became a candidate. They didn’t suggest just five fathers, or only the priests—everyone in the monastery was a candidate. So we went to vote; we could vote for whomever we wanted, freely, and nearly everyone voted for this man that Geronda Aimilianos had already wanted to become the abbot thirty years earlier." This man was the current abbot of Simonos Petra Monastery, Elissaios. Aimilianos had selected him as his successor at the time Elissaios was a high school student.

https://orthochristian.com/149316.html

The following of late abbot Aimilianos is large and growing. Many believe he will soon be sanctified. There are already icons of him as a saint. This forum predicts that regardless of his been sanctified, he will emerge as a controversial figure whose impact on Athonite monasticism has not been salubrious.

Video of abbot Aimilianos

Altvater Aimilianos Ueber das Gebet

An ex cathedra, highly theatrical speech on prayer and monasticism, empty of meaning and spirituality, a products of unbridled intellectualization, alien to the Eastern Orthodoxy.

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