When, five years after Father Porphyrius' death, I came to pray at his grave, his remains were no longer in it. The monks from his cell told me that they had dug up and hidden his relics at night, without informing anyone about it. Now no one knows where they are. Such was the testament of Father Porphyrius: he did not want a pilgrimage to begin to his relics.

Do you want to get even closer to the spirit-bearing image of the Elder? Read the following reliable testimonies of his holiness, which I have selected from several books about him.

One of the spiritual children of the Elder writes: "Father Porphyrius repeatedly told me one extraordinary, amazing incident that happened to him shortly before he left the Holy Mountain. At that time he asceticized in the skete of Kavsokalyvia. Once Father Ioannikii, the elder of the cell and a fellow countryman of Father Porphyrius, sent him to collect snails, which serve as festive lenten food for the ascetics [9]. These snails live mainly in rocks and on the steep slopes of mountain gorges. In order to please his Elder, Father Porphyrius, who was still young at that time, filled his sack to the brim with snails, for which he had to climb up a very dangerous, rocky, almost inaccessible slope. On the way back to the skete, he crossed the riverbed, to which a rocky scree descended. When Father Porphyrius climbed a little up the slope, the stones under his feet suddenly began to crumble and threatened to drag him along with them. Being in such a hopeless situation, moreover, it began to get dark, he exclaimed: "Most Holy Virgin!" "And I did not understand what happened at that moment," the Elder told us, "but some force snatched me out of this scree and in the twinkling of an eye carried me to the opposite bank of the gorge. When I came to my senses, I saw that I was standing on a high rock, next to which there was a path leading to the skete."

"We first heard about Father Porphyrios from the then layman and graduate student of the University of Thrace, and now a priest and teacher of physics at the same university, Father George Anagnostopoulos. On October 4, 1980, we came to the Elder in Oropos, where he lived in a very modest cell made of concrete blocks. My wife and I talked to him for about an hour. We were struck by the following: before we could tell Father Porphyrius about any of our difficulties, he had already given us examples of exactly the same cases from the lives of other people. In this way, he solved all our perplexities, although we practically did not ask him anything.

When we got up to leave, the holy Elder with a quiet, joyful, affectionate fatherly smile took my husband by the hand exactly where she was sick, although we did not say a word to him about the illness. And they were not going to talk, since the course of treatment was under the supervision of our doctor. My husband had inflammation of the elbow joint. He was injected with cortisone and took strong anti-inflammatory drugs. When Father Porphyrius took him by the elbow, for a few seconds my husband felt a kind of warmth permeating his whole body, in addition, he began to feel a little sick, as if from seasickness, but very soon all this passed, and he felt that the pain in his arm suddenly stopped completely. My husband could not restrain himself and with tears in his eyes said to the Elder: "Geronda, this was revealed to you." Naturally, after that, my husband threw away all the pills and did not go to the doctor with this problem anymore."

"One woman came to Father Porphyrius for the first time to consult about a serious family problem. She wanted both her husband and children to hear what the Elder would say to her, so she put a small tape recorder in her purse to record their conversation. Arriving at Father Porphyrios, she saw that he already had a lot of people, stood aside and began to wait for her turn. Soon she heard voices from the crowd of people standing in front: "The elder ordered that a woman with a tape recorder come to him now." She was completely confused, because no one except her knew that she had a tape recorder in her purse. Everything was revealed to Father Porphyrios."

After the death of the Elder, many of his spiritual children began to write articles about him in various periodicals and publish very good books. In them, they told about their own meetings with Father Porphyrios, cited incidents from the lives of other people, both clergy and laity, who knew the Elder closely. In the lives of many, many people, Father Porphyrius played a very important role. Orthodox people loved these books so much that some of them went through several editions. Various stories about the Elder, conversations with him, his advice and explanations of difficult questions, amazing memories of him by his children, words of gratitude – such was their content. These books provided me with invaluable spiritual help, they further kindled in my heart my love for Father Porphyrius and the desire to be with him more often.

But the beautiful instructions, teachings and examples from the Elder's personal experience, which give us the right guidelines in life, were scattered in many books, and it seemed to me that it would be better to collect them together, arrange them by topic and publish them in one collection, which, in this way, would include all the books about Father Porphyrios. Naturally, I could begin this work only after receiving the blessing of the hesychastirion founded by the Elder. The blessing was received, and now I can present to your attention this book, which is a thematic collection of Father Porphyrius' instructions.

When reading the books about the Elder, I was especially struck by the following in him, and this is reflected in my collection:

— Father Porphyrios' boundless love for people. He received and comforted everyone: Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, non-believers, Hindus, workers and scientists, people who were often exhausted and confused in this life. He did not see, did not want to see their shortcomings and talk about them. "Love Christ," he said, "and all that oppresses and destroys you, sinful thoughts, everything that leads you astray, all this will go away. The grace of Christ gives you healing. It's like light. When the light comes, then the darkness recedes."

— One of the main virtues of the Elder was humility. Humility permeated everything—his face, always shining with joy, all his movements, the cell in which he lived, his food. One man asked Father Porphyrios: "Geronda, do you not have the temptation of arrogance, because so many people come here, and everyone wants to meet you?" Is this my money to be proud of?"

"Father Porphyrius possessed the gift of unceasing prayer. He was able to visit his spiritual children both in Greece and abroad, thanks to his gift of clairvoyance, to see what they were doing, what worried about them, what difficulties they had, and how his father could instruct them either in their dreams or when he suddenly called them on the phone.

"I was also always amazed by the fact that the Elder had boundless respect for human freedom. He did not force anyone to do anything, did not gather fans who would constantly surround him. Father Porphyrius treated everyone as a person, no matter how low a person fell. He felt that he too was one of the sinners, and he did not separate himself from them. Therefore, he surrounded everyone who came to him with sincere love, did not scold anyone, did not make remarks, and never behaved with arrogance. Even those who often liked to argue with him, he received with boundless love and tried to help them in a friendly way.

"I paid special attention to the medical knowledge of Father Porphyrius. When he was the rector of the temple at the central polyclinic of Athens, some doctors, when faced with serious cases, invited him to the office, and he made an accurate medical diagnosis, while speaking the correct medical language, which amazed all the hospital staff.