Last week, Stefanos Katrinakis from Greece contacted us: he had a question about a photo we published in November 2023 in blog 2291, “The festivities of Lavra’s 1000 years.” According to Stefanos, the man in the third – black and white – photo from 1963 is called Evgenios Kastanias, who was the brother of his grandmother – or his uncle.

Stefanos shared this amazing story about the life of Evgenios on Mount Athos.

“Evgenios was born on July 26, 1914 on the island of Crete and died on November 1, 2009 at the age of 95. He arrived on Athos as a young boy when he was only 12 years old in 1926 and lived in Kelli of Theotokou Kastania in Provata/Assumption of Mary.

He lived on Athos for 82 years, while his total life span was 95 years. Those 82 years on Athos made him one of the longest-living Elders. He became an Elder when he was only 14 years old when the boat sank on its way from Athos Morfonou to the island of Limnos. All the monks of Kastania drowned, except for himself (14 years old) and another very old monk, from that time in the 1930s.

He had an extremely demanding life on Athos, as the period was extremely turbulent (World War II 1940-1944, Civil War in Greece 1946-1948). He helped soldiers who took part in the struggle for independence of Greece in many battles. What was very special about him is that he was a very charismatic priest and he brought many souls close to Jesus Christ.”

This is a photo of Father Evgenios that Stefanos shared with us:

Wim Voogd, 26/2/2024 (thanks to Stefanos Katrinakis)