Ieronymos of Aegina
Blessed Elder Ieronymos (Apostolides) of Aegina was born Vasilios Apostolides in 1883 in the village of Galyveri, Cappadocia, in Asia Minor. His pious parents, Anastasios and Elizabeth, had six children. As a boy he was deeply impressed by the fervent prayers of both his mother and the secret ascetics who lived in the cave-churches of Turkish-occupied Cappadocia. As a young man he was ordained a deacon by Metropolitan Sophronios of Amisos in Asia Minor. Later, he visited the Holy Land and stayed for nine months in the Monastery of St. John the Forerunner near the River Jordan. On his return, he served as a deacon in the Church of St. George in Constantinople, where he was long remembered for his holiness, his zeal, and his wonderful voice. The Exchange of Populations in 1922 brought Fr. Ieronymos, as well as millions of his fellow Greeks, back to Greece as refugees, ending the 2000-year-old Greek Christian civilization in Asia Minor.
After suffering for two months from a painful disease, he died in an Athens hospital on October 2, 1966. Although not yet glorified as a saint by the Church, his relics repose in his Skete of the Annunciation (Evangelismos) above the town of Aegina.
Source
- Life of Elder Ieronymos: A Brief Life of Righteous Elder Ieronymos of Aegina (+1966) from Evlogeite! A Pilgrim's Guide to Greece by Mother Nectaria (McLees), pp. 72-76.
Further reading
- Elder Ieronymos of Aegina by Peter Botsis. Translated by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 2007. A New Publication: The Life of the Elder Ieronymos of Aegina: 1883–1966 (PDF)