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. One day, 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:

— Безграничная любовь отца Порфирия к людям. Он принимал и утешал всех: православных, католиков, протестантов, неверующих, индуистов, рабочих и ученых, людей, часто измученных и запутавшихся в этой жизни. Он не видел, не хотел видеть их недостатки и говорить о них. «Возлюбите Христа, — говорил он, — и все то, что вас угнетает и губит, греховные помыслы, все то, что уводит в сторону, — все это уйдет. Благодать Христова дарует вам исцеление. Это как свет. Когда свет приходит, тогда тьма отступает».

— Одной из главных добродетелей Старца было смиренномудрие. Смирением было пронизано все — его всегда сияющее радостью лицо, все его движения, келья, в которой он жил, его пища. Один человек спросил отца Порфирия: «Геронда, у Вас нет искушения высокомудрием, ведь сюда приезжает столько людей, и все стремятся встретиться с Вами?» И Старец ответил: «Представь себе, что игумен послал меня в магазин купить для монастыря лукум и дал мне 100 драхм. Разве это мои деньги, чтобы я ими гордился?»

— Отец Порфирий обладал даром непрестанной молитвы. Он мог, пребывая телом на одном месте, посещать своих духовных чад как в Греции, так и за границей, благодаря своему дару прозорливости видеть, что они делают, что их волнует, какие у них трудности, и как отец мог наставлять их или во сне, или когда неожиданно звонил им по телефону.

— Меня также всегда поражало то, что Старец безгранично уважал свободу человека. Он никого ни к чему не принуждал, не собирал себе поклонников, которые бы постоянно его окружали. Отец Порфирий к любому относился как к личности, как бы низко человек ни пал. Он чувствовал, что он тоже один из грешников, и не отделял себя от них. Поэтому всех, кто к нему приходил, он окружал искренней любовью, никого не отчитывал, не делал замечаний, никогда не держался с высокомерием. Даже тех, кто часто любил с ним поспорить, он принимал с безграничной любовью и по–дружески пытался им помочь.

— Особое внимание я обратил на медицинские познания отца Порфирия. Когда он был настоятелем храма при центральной поликлинике Афин, некоторые врачи, сталкиваясь с тяжелыми случаями, приглашали его в кабинет, и он ставил точный медицинский диагноз, при этом говоря правильным медицинским языком, что приводило в изумление весь больничный персонал.