The Disciple Eumenios Saridakis

St. Eumenios (Saridakis) — in the world Constantine Saridakis (1931–1999) — was a Cretan leper who became Nikephoros’s novice, spiritual son, and closest attendant during the last seven years of his life at the Athens leprosarium, and who was his chief eyewitness. Himself later a much-loved confessor and himself glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2022, Eumenios both transmitted his master’s memory and, by his own recognized sanctity, confirmed it.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (20th-c. Cretan monk; glorified 2012)

Who Eumenios Was

Eumenios Saridakis was born Constantine (Konstantinos) Saridakis on 1 January 1931 in the village of Ethia, in the district of Monofatsi in the province of Heraklion, Crete — like Nikephoros, a poor Cretan (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis,” citing the Greek Life; John Sanidopoulos, “Elder Eumenios Saridakis Has Been Officially Recognized,” johnsanidopoulos.com, 2022). In 1951 he entered a monastery near his village; he was tonsured a monk with the name Sophronios, and in 1975 he was ordained priest with the name Eumenios (Evmenios) (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis”; Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, “St. Nikephoros the Leper,” Part 2, orthochristian.com/164914). He, too, contracted Hansen’s disease, and it was as a leper that he was sent to the Saint Barbara Antileprosy Station at Aigaleo — where his life joined Nikephoros’s (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis”; Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, orthochristian.com/164914).

Cured of the active disease by the sulfone drugs, Eumenios nonetheless chose to remain at the leprosarium, serving his fellow-patients for more than forty years and, after his ordination, acting as father-confessor to the leprous and to a growing number of laypeople who sought him out (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis”; Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, orthochristian.com/164914). He reposed on 23 May 1999 (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis”; Sanidopoulos, johnsanidopoulos.com, 2022).

Nikephoros’s Disciple and Eyewitness

The two Cretan lepers met at Aigaleo shortly after Nikephoros’s transfer there in 1957. Nikephoros — then in his late sixties, blind and increasingly paralyzed — became Eumenios’s elder, confessor, and primary spiritual guide, and Eumenios became his novice and attendant for the seven years until Nikephoros’s repose in 1964 (Wikipedia, “Evmenios Saridakis”; Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, “St. Nikephoros the Leper,” Part 1, orthochristian.com/164755). It is Eumenios, above all, who supplies the eyewitness texture of the Life: his descriptions of “the nearly blind and almost entirely paralyzed Father Nikephoros,” of the prayer and the joy, and of the events of the last years are the backbone of the later biography (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, orthochristian.com/164755). Eumenios also composed a funeral oration / encomium for Nikephoros, and in later life recounted numerous instances in which, he said, Nikephoros had appeared to him or answered his prayers after death (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, orthochristian.com/164914; John Sanidopoulos, “Saint Nikephoros the Leper Resource Page,” johnsanidopoulos.com; on the posthumous accounts, attestation-pinned, see The Relics and the Healings).

[Disputed: Eumenios's monastic and secular names as reported in the digests. His baptismal name is given as Constantine (Konstantinos) Saridakis, his first monastic name (at his 1951/1954 tonsure) as Sophronios, and his priestly name (from 1975) as Eumenios (Wikipedia, "Evmenios Saridakis"; Sanidopoulos, 2022). One English summary of Metropolitan Neophytos's account inverts or garbles these, describing "Sophronios" as a secular name; the sequence Constantine → monk Sophronios → priest Eumenios is the better-attested one and is followed here.]

The Chain of Holiness: Anthimos — Nikephoros — Eumenios

The modern Greek tradition reads these three lives as a single chain of transmitted sanctity, and this reading is itself part of the documentary basis of Nikephoros’s cult. Metropolitan Neophytos states it directly: “Behind the sanctity of Elder Eumenios Saridakis is the holiness of Elder Nikiphoros the Leper. Behind Elder Nikiphoros is found the holiness of the venerable Anthimos of Chios, the father of lepers” (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, on Eumenios, orthochristian.com/164914; iconandlight.wordpress.com, transmitting Neophytos). The leprosaria of Chios and Athens thus produced, in two generations, three glorified saints — Anthimos (canonized 1992), Nikephoros (2012), and Eumenios (2022) — a fact the tradition finds eloquent: that the most abandoned places bred the most concentrated holiness (on the three glorifications, see Glorification 2012).

The Link to the Recent Elders — Through Eumenios

It is through Eumenios, and not through Nikephoros directly, that the well-attested connection to the famous recent Greek elders runs. St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia esteemed Eumenios highly: when his own spiritual children feared being left orphaned, Porphyrios is remembered to have sent many of them to Eumenios, and to have said of him, “How can anyone consider me a saint? Have they not heard of Eumenios? He is far above me. He is a hidden saint” (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, on Eumenios, orthochristian.com/164914; iconandlight.wordpress.com; friendsofmorphou.com, “A Tribute to Evmenios Saridakis”). Metropolitan Neophytos himself, after 1987, visited Porphyrios, Paisios, Iakovos of Evia, and Eumenios (iconandlight.wordpress.com, transmitting Neophytos).

[Disputed: a direct personal link between St. Nikephoros and St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia. Popular accounts sometimes assume that Porphyrios — who served as a hospital chaplain in Athens in the same decades — knew Nikephoros personally. The sources consulted do not attest this: the documented elder-connection runs Porphyrios → Eumenios (Porphyrios praising and sending souls to Eumenios), not Porphyrios → Nikephoros. This collection therefore does not assert that Porphyrios knew Nikephoros, and routes the "recent-elder" link through the well-attested Eumenios connection instead. If a firsthand attestation of a Porphyrios–Nikephoros acquaintance exists, it has not been located here.]

Eumenios’s Own Glorification (2022)

The disciple was himself received into the calendar. The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized Elder Eumenios (Saridakis) on 14 April 2022, as “the confessor of the leprous” (John Sanidopoulos, “Elder Eumenios Saridakis Has Been Officially Recognized,” johnsanidopoulos.com, 2022; OrthoChristian, “New saint: Elder Eumenios,” orthochristian.com/145709). That the chief witness to Nikephoros’s holiness was himself judged holy by the Church gives the attestation a rare quality: the man whose testimony underlies Nikephoros’s Life is himself a saint of the same Church that glorified Nikephoros — the witness and the witnessed sealed together (see Contemporary Testimony).

See Also

References

  • Wikipedia. “Evmenios Saridakis.” en.wikipedia.org. (Constantine Saridakis, b. 1 Jan 1931 Ethia, Crete; monk Sophronios; priest Eumenios 1975; leprosy; met Nikephoros after 1957; Nikephoros his elder/confessor seven years to 1964; d. 23 May 1999; canonized 2022.)
  • John Sanidopoulos. “Elder Eumenios Saridakis Has Been Officially Recognized as a Saint.” johnsanidopoulos.com, April 2022. (The canonization by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 14 April 2022.)
  • OrthoChristian. “New saint: Elder Eumenios, confessor of the leprous, canonized by Constantinople.” orthochristian.com/145709. (The 2022 canonization.)
  • Metropolitan Neophytos (Masouras) of Morphou. “St. Nikephoros (Tzanakakis) the Leper,” Parts 1–2. orthochristian.com/164755, /164914. (Eumenios as Nikephoros’s novice and witness; the chain Anthimos–Nikephoros–Eumenios; Porphyrios’s esteem for Eumenios.)
  • Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou. “A Tribute to Evmenios Saridakis.” friendsofmorphou.com (PDF transcript). (Porphyrios sending souls to Eumenios; “a hidden saint.”)
  • “Elder Eumenios Saridakis has been canonized.” iconandlight.wordpress.com. (The chain of holiness; Porphyrios’s words on Eumenios.)