Origins and Early Life
Arsenios Eznepidis was born in Pharasa, Cappadocia, in 1924; sources give his birth date variously as July 25 or August 7. He received his baptismal name from Arsenios the Cappadocian, who baptized him. Very shortly after his baptism, the family was forced to leave Asia Minor in the population exchange that followed the Greco-Turkish War, and resettled in Konitsa, Epirus.
In Greece he trained and worked as a carpenter. From 1945 he served as a radio operator in the Hellenic Army during the Greek Civil War; by tradition he is said to have requested frontline duty in order to spare soldiers who had families.
Monastic Life on Mount Athos
He came to Mount Athos in 1950, studying at first under Fr. Kyril at the Monastery of Esphigmenou. On March 27, 1954, he was tonsured a Rassophore monk and given the name Averkios. On March 12, 1957 — some sources give 1956 — he received the Small Schema and was renamed Paisios, in honor of Metropolitan Paisios II of Caesarea.
Between 1958 and 1962 he undertook missionary work in northern Greece in response to Protestant proselytism. He later resided for a time at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai. In 1964–1966 he lived at the Skete of Iviron and at Katounakia, and during this period part of his lungs was removed in an operation in 1966. On January 11, 1966, he received the Great Schema from Elder Tikhon at the Holy Cross Hermitage.
From 1979 onward he relocated to the Panagouda hermitage, a property of Koutloumousiou Monastery. There his renown as a spiritual father grew considerably; he received thousands of visitors while limiting his own sleep to two or three hours a night.
Final Years and Repose
He left Mount Athos for the last time on October 5, 1993, to seek medical treatment after a grave diagnosis; he endured respiratory problems, hernia, and hemorrhaging in his later years. He received his final Holy Communion on July 11, 1994, and reposed the following day, July 12, 1994, at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Souroti, near Thessaloniki.
In accordance with his wishes he was buried at Souroti, next to Arsenios of Cappadocia, the saint for whom he had been named. Thousands of pilgrims visit his tomb each year.
Canonization and Legacy
Elder Paisios was canonized on January 13, 2015, by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, described as among the swiftest canonizations in recent Church history. Since 2015 numerous churches have been dedicated to him worldwide, including in Cyprus, Greece, and on Mount Athos.
He is beloved for his practical, loving counsel, and remained one of the most widely consulted spiritual fathers of his era.
