Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios Book

264 pages, sewn binding. Elder Porphyrios (1906-1991) was among a number of extraordinary spiritual elders within the Eastern Orthodox Church who lived and exercised their ancient ministry in Greece in the twentieth century. This book records in his own words, with a freshness and immediacy unusual in similar hagiographic writings, the remarkable details of his life and his counsels on many aspects of living a spiritual life. Elder Porphyrios was born on the Greek island of Evia (Euboea). His parents were poor farmers and had difficulty in supporting their large family, and for this reason his father left for America where he worked on the construction of the Panama Canal. As a boy he looked after sheep on the hills and had completed only the first class of primary school when, at the age of seven, he was obliged on account of his family's extreme poverty to go to the nearby town of Chalkida to work. At the age of twelve he left secretly to go to the Holy Mountain. His longing was to imitate Saint John the Hut-dweller whose life he had read and for whom he felt a special affinity. The grace of God led him to the hermitage of Saint George in Kavsokalyvia on the wooded slopes of the south-eastern extremity of Mount Athos where he lived in obedience to two elders, natural brothers, Panteleimon, who was a father confessor, and Ioannikios, who was a priest. He devoted himself with great love and in a spirit of utter obedience to the two elders who had a reputation for being exceptionally austere. He became a monk at the age of fourteen and took the name of Niketas. Two years later he took his final monastic vows of the Great Schema. Shortly thereafter God granted him the gift of clear sight.This book was compiled after Elder Porphyrios's death from an archive of notes and recordings of his reminiscences, conversations and words of guidance, and was first published in Greek in 2003. Since its publication in English in 2005 it has been reprinted five times.Read More