Elder Savvas Agioritis (the Athonite)

About Elder Savvas

Archimandrite Father Savvas Agioritis began his monastic life in the Holy Kelli of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Kerasia on Mount Athos. He is also a graduate of the School of Dentistry and the School of Theology, at the University of Thessaloniki, where he completed his Masters Degree with Professor Demetrios Tselengides. Today, Father Savvas is the spiritual father of the Holy Monastery of the Holy Trinity in the Diocese of Edessa, in northern Greece. Father Savvas works tirelessly teaching and guiding the faithful not only in his diocese or in Greece, but, indeed, through the online homilies and lectures, the world over, wherever the rational sheep of Christ are thirsting for the Word of God and the Gospel.

On Masks and Other Unacceptable Innovative Practices Introduced into Orthodox Worship as a result of COVID, Concluding with Advice on the COVID Vaccines

A sermon given by Archimandrite Savvas Agioritis (the Athonite) on 25 December, 2020

Note: In this sermon, all notes and commentaries in brackets - or in [ ] - have been added by Father Kosmas.

A shocking event recently occurred on the fourth of December 2020, on the celebration of the Entry of the Virgin Mary according to the Old Calendar. According to correspondence we received from Herzegovina, Abbot Vasileios, the brotherhood of the monastery, together with other clergymen, monks and the faithful, from the Diocese of Zahumlje-Herzegovina and Primorska, were celebrating this great feast at the Cathedral Church of the Monastery of Zavala, whose feast it was, in Popovo polje, officiated by Bishop Demetrios [Serbian Orthodox Church], who arrived at the church holding a bag full of masks, demanding that they be distributed to everyone present. He said that only the chanters are entitled not to wear a mask.

During the Service, the tonsure of monk Stephan took place. When it was time for Holy Communion, the bishop ordered the Abbot to wear a mask so as to commune the faithful. The Abbot refused to do so three times, and then the bishop said, “Well then, I will give the Holy Communion”.

Taking in his hands the Holy Chalice, he came out through the Royal Doors. Suddenly the Holy Communion Cloth caught fire, which transferred to the bishop [his vestments]. In his attempt to protect himself from the fire, the bishop began to hit his hands, and threw down the Holy Chalice. The Holy Gifts were spilt onto the ground, and he ran back into the Holy Altar.

The faithful became shocked when they saw the bishop engulfed in flames and the Holy Gifts spilt on the ground, and they said that the fire had sprung from the icon of the Virgin Mary [to the bishop]. Although the bishop’s deacon reported that the fire was transmitted from the candle of the newly tonsured monk, this does not change the essence [of what happened and why].

Many of the faithful interpret this incident as a warning from God for the blasphemous innovations which the bishop introduced due to the Coronavirus, one of which is the wiping of the Holy Spoon (Lavida) with paper towels immersed in methylated spirits after each of the faithful communed.

This practice is extremely impious, including mask-wearing inside the church by the lay people and the clergy as well, unfortunately, and by the hierarchs (not all of them, thankfully,) as well as refusing to venerate [by kissing] the holy icons, the holy relics, as well as receiving antidoron in little plastic bags, as well as single-use spoons as mandated by certain Bishops in the United States, and perhaps in Russia, and all of these blasphemous measures by which they wipe the Holy Spoon (Lavida) and immerse it in antiseptic and so on. All of these things are extremely blasphemous to the All-holy God Who is the source of life and not the source of infection.

[The Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council wrote to Empress Irene that the faithful must kiss the holy icons with their lips, and whoever does not do this should be excommunicated. Therefore, the veneration of the holy icons by kissing them is not optional but absolutely necessary for one’s salvation.]

All the more, this impiety of mask-wearing in the church, which [has] converted the worship of God into a carnival, was prophesied by a holy elder, Father Basil (Vassilios) Kapsokaliviti, who led an ascetical life at Kapsokalivia (Mt Athos) who on the 5th of October 2009, eleven years ago in other words, in a homily which he gave in Thessaloniki to a gathering of the faithful in the house of Mrs Kaliopi Toumba. It was there amongst other things where he prophesied because he had a great prophetic gift, and when St Paisios visited him, he gave him half a prayer rope and told him, “Take it, so you can continue my work,” meaning, the work of St Paisios which was the awakening of the people.

The spiritual awakening of the Greek Orthodox people and Orthodox people around the world, and the preaching of repentance which has been continued by Elder Basil who has said a lot of prophetic things concerning our time and the future.

Amongst other things, he said that day, 5th October 2009 that the carnivals* will come into the church by law and whoever does not participate in these carnivals will be persecuted! [The elder added:] You will witness many shameful things! You will travel miles to find a proper priest and a proper spiritual father so that you will be able to confess. This he said and this is what we are seeing being realised today.

[* By carnivals, the Elder is referring to sinful celebrations in Greece before Great Lent, known as carnivals, where people disguise themselves by wearing costumes and masks so that they can freely sin without anyone knowing who they are.]

The carnivals are the masks which unfortunately have been imposed also by the Synod [of Greece], by certain hierarchs, and the persecution [of the faithful] is truly being realized now. People who truly believe in God and are not scared to venerate [by kissing] the holy icons and to enter the church without masks are persecuted, many times by the priest himself who often is himself wearing a mask. He holds in his hands the Source of Life, the Physician of our souls and bodies, the Victor over death, and he wears a mask! While the bishop performs an ordination, he wears a mask. So, if we have gotten to this point, indeed we deserve to be chastised by God, and this has also been prophesied by our Holy Fathers.

If we repent, there is hope that God will take back these chastisements, otherwise they will come. We need to awaken our brethren and tell them the truth so that they do not agree with these impious and blasphemous measures which have been imposed by the government which has members within it who have been excommunicated by the Church. The government have proved themselves to be obedient to the New World Order and not God’s Law. But we obey God’s Law, and we will say that he who wears a mask is unworthy, whether he be a clergyman or a lay person just like that shocking incident proved to us by this person who was communing and serving and was partaking in divine worship. [It seems he is referring to the Serbian bishop who caught on fire.]

Our Holy Church prohibits any innovation in worship according to the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Council whereby whoever does something new or changes something is excommunicated if a lay person, and defrocked if a clergyman. Furthermore, by the decision of an Ecumenical Council, a Christian is forbidden to wear face coverings in the church. 

[According to the 62nd Canon of the 5th-6th Ecumenical Council, Christians are forbidden to cover their faces by wearing masks. While this does not refer to masks that are worn for medical and safety reasons, but to masks that are worn by actors in theatres and during pagan celebrations (carnivals), the contemporary elders liken the wearing of medical masks in church to those worn in theatres and carnivals because they consider both to be a mockery of God – a distortion of one’s face. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Although the faithful are told that wearing masks in church is for health reasons, the holy elders are saying this is not necessary because one cannot contract a disease in the church building nor from holy things. The faithful must bear in mind that examples of the current practices of wearing masks and social distancing in churches are found nowhere in the lives of saints nor in any part of holy tradition. The Church has successfully dealt with true epidemics for 2000 years and if one attentively reads the lives of saints, they will find countless examples of God’s intervention in healing the sick and finally stopping epidemics through the Life-giving cross, icons, holy relics, outdoor litanies, holy water services, holy unction, the prayers of the clergy and the faithful within the church building, and above all, Holy Communion. Yet, many of these are not permitted today due to the COVID-19 restrictions that have been forced on the Church by several hierarchs, priests and government authorities, especially during hard lockdown. Again, it must be stressed that there is not one precedent (authoritative example) in Orthodoxy for what many hierarchs and priests are doing today.] 

Additionally, it is forbidden not to venerate, not to kiss, the Holy Icons because, according to the Seventh Ecumenical Council, whoever does not venerate the Holy Icons is excommunicated and falls away from the Church and therefore from salvation. Let us bear all this in mind and especially the aforementioned miracle, which is connected with two other miracles we mentioned before, the first of which involved one pious woman who saw the Mother of God in a dream who told her, “Take off these masks finally!” and the second one involved a lady who was awake and in a prayerful state during church worship and saw Satan placing masks on the ‘faithful’, the supposed faithful, in reality the unfaithful, while bragging before Christ with audacity [disrespectfully], saying “See! They are mine”, and Christ telling Satan that “I do not know these people”, as Christ says in the Gospel, “I never knew you,” as some will hear. I wish for no one to hear this. They will reply “But Lord, did we not eat before you,” in other words, did we not commune? [And Christ will reply,] “I do not know you”. 

When you approach to commune wearing a mask showing your unbelief, you do not commune the Body and Blood of Christ; but judgment and condemnation because you participated in worship as if dressed up for a Carnival. 

Let’s listen to what our Saints say, let us become spiritually vigilant and tell others who perhaps are not properly informed, perhaps not properly guided by supposed spiritual fathers who do not properly guide their flock - they may even be hierarchs - including those that have been misinformed by the mass media of deception [propaganda] and have been terrorized. Let us inform all these people of the truth. As even those governing us are saying, “We are going through an exercise.” You may have heard this on TV? This is not something great and scary that is happening, proof being that this year’s deaths are significantly less in total than last year’s deaths in Greece. Therefore, where is the pandemic? Where does the pandemic exist? If a pandemic existed, there would have been millions of victims. Yet the total deaths are lower than last year when we did not have this supposed pandemic. 

All these people from mainstream media claim that so many people have died. But in reality, they have not died from COVID - the government spokesman said that they had other serious illnesses. Ninety six percent of those they said died from COVID in Italy had existing medical conditions which led to their death. This means they would have died anyway. Therefore, we should not listen to these misleading reports. It is an exercise in submission by the New World Order which wants to impose globally this caste of Cabalists, Zionists, who are now testing to see whether the plans they have in place can be successfully implemented. In other words, a one world government, global domination, and they afflict billions of the world’s people leading many of them to death.

Because when someone constantly wears these muzzles (masks) they are breathing their own carbon dioxide all day and inhale again the air they have exhaled together with the microbes which collect inside the mask; this person will get sick and die far more easily than someone who does not wear a mask. 

They are also bringing this vaccine which will complete their work, the same people that are talking about reducing the population. There exists on the Internet a video where Bill Gates says that if we succeed and everything goes well with the vaccine and the other measures we are taking we will succeed in reducing the global population by 15 percent and he considers this a success, eliminating 1 billion people! And he’s saying this to our face, that this will happen through the vaccine. There exist naïve, very naïve people who will rush to get the vaccine. We owe it to them to forewarn and inform them of all this. 

This is what I wanted to say to you and to wish you all the joy of Christmas, not only today but always because our Christ is born and exists inside us mystically always, when we live according to His commandments; when we keep His holy will; when we take care to preserve faith, hope, love and humility in our lives. Then we are in communion with Him and, as Saint Paisios use to say, we tune in to God’s frequency, which is humility and love. This is what we pray for and you, also, pray for us to always have this humility and love, which Christ showed to us through His incarnation, having been born in a very poor, cold and dirty cave and spending His whole life in humility, and the love which He showed with all His Divine Economy and His sacrifice on the cross. Christ is Born! Truly He is born! [I wish you] Many Years and a blessed new year. Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ , our God, have mercy on us and save us.

Nuns: Amen.

Fr. Savvas: May the Holy Trinity preserve all of us.

Video of the above sermon.

More Videos and Articles 

Part 1:On the Holy Temple of God & COVID-19 Infection: Interview with Archimandrite Savvas Agioreitis 

Part 2: The Role of a Spiritual Father in the Current Crisis: Interview with Archimandrite Savvas Agioreitis

Part 3: How Shall We Live During This Current Persecution of Orthodoxy?: Interview with Fr. Savvas Agioreitis

Part 4: The Current Challenge of Caesaropapism to the Orthodox Faith: Interview with
Fr. Savvas Agioreitis

On vaccination and side effects by Elder Savvas Agioritis

An Interview with Elder Savvas Agioritis