Elder Ephraim’s Encounter with a Demon-Possessed Girl and the Old Calendarists in Canada

as told by Demetrios Panagopoulos during a visit to Philotheou Monastery and translated and shared by Constantine Zalalas

This excerpt was taken from a talk given at Philotheou Monastery by Demetrios Panagopoulos, a renowned and grace-filled lay preacher in Greece who reposed in 1982. After Geronda Ephraim first came to Canada and the United States in 1979, due to the great spiritual need he found there, he continued afterwards to visit the spiritually needy people of these lands to hear their confessions and to provide much needed spiritual guidance, consequently remaining for periods of time outside of Philotheou Monastery where he served as abbot and Geronda. This talk was given at Philotheou during a time when Geronda Ephraim was abroad, in order to encourage the fathers regarding the fruitfulness of the Geronda’s missionary labors and to comfort them in the absence of their beloved Geronda.

As Constantine Zalalas explains, he received the cassette with Panagopoulos' talk in Greek from a couple who was visiting St. Nektarios Monastery in Roscoe, NY for their feast day. Constantine translated the talk into English, recorded it, and posted it online several years ago but it is nevertheless not very widely known, so we provide it here for the edification of the faithful. It shows how it is possible to have a correct position (i.e. the introduction of the New Calendar was a mistake and priests should not be clean shaven) and yet fall into the temptation from the demons "on the right" by being overly critical of clergy, disparaging of others, factious, proud, treating others with contempt, etc. [1]

Original Source: Talk 38: https://pantokrator.info//constantine-zalalas/

21:50: Elder Ephraim and the Demon-Possessed Girl

38:00: How Constantine Zalalas received the tapes of Demetrios Panagopoulos

“Along with the great many things that this Geronda [Ephraim] relayed to me, he said that the Panagia blessed him with great success in this venture [his travels to Canada], even though this was not intended to be of a missionary purpose. This trip was primarily planned for health reasons. While there, if there was any time left, he would use this time to help with Confession and spiritual advice. Some of these souls face difficult times in that area. However, by the Panagia’s blessing, his medical tests showed that his health was generally good, so there was no need for hospitalization. So, the time that he was expected to spend in a hospital, he would now use to undo some of the damage that Satan caused to the people of God in that region. So, he spoke to me, and I was touched by his humble-mindedness. He told me where he went, and he followed the program that we had planned in advance from here. And I had the opportunity to travel there twice before, and the ground was somewhat prepared. And now what was needed was the presence of a spiritual father in order to bring to completion the work of the Sermon of Repentance.

He told me where he went and I asked him when he was planning to return, and he told me,

“I would like to come back now.”

And I said, “Don't you have any time to spare for those people?”

And he tells me, “Yes, I do have some time.”

I told him, “Then why don't you stay there for a while? Why did you want to come back? Do you have a problem at your monastery or did you receive a phone call? Or did you call and you were informed that your presence was needed here at the Holy Mountain? Do you have any concerns?”

He said. “No, not really. There is no such thing. I'm quite relaxed about the function of my monastery. I have no such concerns. I don't even have the slightest indication that there is something in need of attention at my monastery.”

“Then why are you in a hurry to come back? Stay there for the love of God!”

“Do you know, Dimitri?” He told me, “They are inviting me to go everywhere. They're inviting me to go to Vancouver, to the US, to Hawaii. They're calling me to go all over.” And he asked me, “What should I do? Tell me, and whatever you tell me, I will do.”

I laughed when the Geronda told me that he would do whatever I told him! So, I said, “You must work out the commandment of love and for the love of God you must go! Since our Panagia kept you out of the hospital, then utilize this time to go to help these people.”

And his ever-so-blessed response was “I will do obedience to you and I will go.”

I told him “You're going to do obedience to me, a layperson?”

“Yes,” he said, “I will do obedience to you and I will not come back. I will stay here for a while.” So the man decided to stay even though I later found out that he was grieved greatly at that time because the Christians there are divided, at least they were divided back then. Some people belonged to the extreme Old Calendar groups called “zealots” who consider themselves saved. [2]  There are other Old Calendar groups that refuse to have communion with other Christians, other Churches —they don't commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch. And there are the New Calendarists. And as you can imagine, this man found himself in the middle of all these three quarreling factions.

Unfortunately, I found out, that the followers of Auxentios[3] spoke against him on public radio, but the Blessed Geronda overcame all these obstacles by his known grace-filled actions because this holy man went and offered himself to help people, to bless them and reconcile them with God.

The other brothers around him were very saddened by all these reactions because this holy man went and offered himself to help people, to bless them and unite them with God. That's all this twenty-pound man could ever want! However, the factious brothers were quite ungrateful and their actions were unjustified, offering a very bitter cup to this very holy man. However, even though he spoke to me for twenty minutes, he gave me no indication whatsoever that any of this was going on. I had no clue that he was saddened so deeply, but the fact is that he was extremely hurt by the behavior of some of these zealot brothers. But here I would also like to tell you about the great intervention of God's grace in an event that would quickly change the minds of all those who were divided in this person. What exactly happened? Some evening after confessing people all day long —his day would stop at nine, ten o’clock at night — he was invited to a certain home where he was offered something to eat. People would go out of their way to prepare (he was used to some dried bread and some tea, anyway). However, it was not unusual to have two, or three, or as many as four-hundred people gather at a house to be next to him. This is often a problem for the homeowners who were not prepared for this type of traffic.

A certain evening, one of the members of this audience was a demon possessed young lady. This young lady had no idea that she was possessed and no one else knew that this young person was housing demons. She was sitting Indian-style on the floor because there were not enough seats. Obviously, people were all over the place, most of them on their knees or on the floor, Indian-style. And she was sitting about ten feet away from the Geronda. The Geronda was staring at her in the eyes and I don't know if he felt something, or if he had some information from above that in this girl there was a nest of Satan, I don't know. But the fact is he was staring at her constantly. He pierced her with his eyes, and in a few seconds she began to tremble. The Geronda knew then that he had company — and what company! A close encounter of the demon kind! The Geronda, being very experienced in these matters, continued to talk — cool, calm and collected, but the demon could not take it anymore and began to roar.

The people were terrified. They had no idea that these things can happen in the 20th century. They couldn't believe their eyes. They were citizens of a large city, a large and modern city. The last thing they would think about was the existence of demons. But now the demon was disturbed and began to shout, to roar, and to verbally abuse the Geronda, saying to him:

“You have no business coming here! Now you are causing me great grief and you are taking my people away from me!”

Now the men who were witnessing all this, and up to now had refused to go to confession, when they heard this confession of the demon, they broke down. They began to weep. This duel between the demon and the Geronda lasted more than two hours. The demon revealed its methods and how it influenced people to bicker, among them, to have arguments and divisions. He revealed that he was behind all this. He was behind the criticism of priests. He got people to criticize priests, especially those that are shaven, and the beautiful thing was that there were many faithful of the Old Calendar there as well, and they heard from the mouth of Satan that he was the one telling them to criticize the shaven priests and the priests of the New Calendar. And these poor people were swallowing their tongues because a few days prior to this, they were questioning the Geronda and nailing him to the cross with a number of questions like, “How come you're cooperating with New Calendar people?” and “How come you're going to New Calendar Churches?” and so on and so forth.

When they were asking these questions, the Geronda would not answer, trying not to offend anybody out of politeness, but now Satan comes a couple of days later and he gives them the best possible sermon on these matters. He answered all of their questions for the sake of the Geronda. This evening was a mini-Pentecost for Canada and the US! All those who were present became the messengers. They spread this amazing parapsychological event—to use a modern term—this amazing miracle was spread instantly nationwide and beyond. Montreal alone has 90,000 Greek Orthodox, and a pandemonium took place! People were calling from everywhere requesting to meet the Geronda. This blessed man who had the power and the grace to reveal a demon that was lurking so many years in this girl.

At any rate, the Geronda continued that evening with his program while people were flooding this house. The girl who had the demon was finally defeated by the Geronda and waited until the end to take confession from this blessed Elder. The Geronda confessed her for about two hours and then he left and the next day he went to the Church of the Annunciation in Montreal, a very large church with capacity to handle over 1000 people. There, regardless [of the fact] that they don't know what they believe in, the fact is that the churches are full on Sundays. The people do go to Church, unlike here in Greece, where most people are un-Churched. On that particular Sunday, that demon possessed lady was there and she took Holy Communion, and after Holy Communion, that demon inside of her began to scream and shout.

He was saying “I am he!” Not she! “I am he! I am he who directs you to criticize the shaven priests. I am he who teaches you to criticize the Ecumenical Patriarch! I am he who blinds you and turns you upside down with the Calendar issue!” And so on and so forth.

This had the effect of a thunderbolt on these thousands of believers. They were in shock hearing a real demon roar and grumble and speak in a male voice, a male voice coming out of this poor girl: “I am he!” [4] 

This amazing occurrence, this mini-Pentecost,[5]  served as the seal of approval and opened the door for the Geronda in the Western hemisphere. All of the above from this simple Geronda, this simple monk with no possessions, no degrees, no Masters and PhD’s—no membranes[6], as we say here in Greek—no apartments or automobiles, nothing, nothing. None of all this, but he has the power and the grace from Christ and the Theotokos to bring people to tears and to terrify, to bring a faithful to tears, and to terrify the evil people and the demons.

This powerful message was given by Mr. Panagapoulos while visiting the monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain.”

---

[1] Fr. Seraphim (Rose) often spoke of the dangers of this “temptation on the right”. For instance, in a letter from July 16/29, 1976, about an article he wrote in Orthodox Word, he said, “We spoke… of the Patristic dictum of the ‘danger on the right side’—of being too correct and too precise, without the saving medicine of profound humility, which causes discord and division and only helps the work of the devil.” Similarly, in a letter dated April 20/May 3, 1979, he says, “But there is also a temptation on the ‘right side’ which proceeds from the same hypercriticism I just mentioned. The traditionalist (Old Calendar) Church in Greece today is in chaos because of this, one jurisdiction fighting and anathematizing another over ‘canonical correctness’ and losing sight of the whole tradition over hyper-fine points.”

[2] This may refer to the fact that many Old Calendarists throughout history have formally declared that local churches who adopted the New Calendar became automatically cut off from the Church and deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit in their Mysteries, as though remaining on the Old Calendar was a matter of salvation.

[3] Archbishop Auxentios of Athens was the leader of the “Florinite” faction of Old Calendarists.

[4]This story is not unusual if one is familiar with the Scriptures and the lives of the saints. For instance, in the gospels the demons would sometimes confess the truth about Christ after being defeated and cast out. Luke 4:33-37 states, “And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, ‘Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.’ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, ‘What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.’ And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.” The following is said of St. Macarius the Great, “When Abba Macarius was returning from the marsh to his cell one day carrying some palm-leaves, he met the devil on the road with a scythe. The latter struck at him as much as he pleased, but in vain, and he said to him, 'What is your power, Macarius, that makes me powerless against you? All that you do, I do, too; you fast, so do I; you keep vigil, and I do not sleep at all; in one thing only do you beat me.' Abba Macarius asked what that was. He said, 'Your humility. Because of that I can do nothing against you.'”

See also: "Confessions of the Demons", Elder Ephraim, My Elder Joseph the Hesychast. (Florence, AZ: St. Anthony's Monastery, 2013), 656

[5] The term “mini-Pentecost” simply refers to the fact that after news of this event spread, many who were previously indifferent to the faith or living in an unrepentant state came to confess, repent of their sins, and live close to the Church.

[6] “Membranes” refers to the aged, leathery papyrus upon which degrees are written in Greece.