Joseph the Hesychast

The icon is made on a particle board with the use of the most advanced imprinting and production techniques. The background is decorated in a way that gives the impression of glossy gilding.

Joseph was born on the island of Paros in 1898 as Francis. His family was poor: his mother, a pious woman, was widowed early and struggled to support her family.

She said that when Francis was born, she saw an angel come and take the child to follow Christ. Thus, she knew of her child's vocation.

As a young man Joseph was working in Athens, when a dream led him to the decision to become a monk in Mount Athos. There he met father Arsenios, with whom he pursued asceticism as a novice to the elder Ephraim of Philotheou. After the death of the elder, they began to lead an even more strict and ascetic life.

In 1938, together with father Arsenios and a few other monks, they settled in the Little St. Anne's skete, settling in the caves near the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist.

Through their spiritual struggles, the six holy monasteries of Mount Athos and many women's monasteries in Greece were revived and strengthened. Ephraim of Arizona, Joseph's spiritual child, was a novice of the holy elder.

Joseph the Hesychast has deceased and was laid to rest on August 15, 1959 at a tomb in the holy chapel of the Annunciation of the Theotokos in the New Skete of Mount Athos. His spiritual children tell us that the Mother of God informed him of the day of his repose, which the elder waited for with enthusiastic impatience.

The memory of Joseph the Hesychast is commemorated on August 16.