What do the prophecies of the Church say about Constantinople?

What do the prophecies of the Church say about Constantinople? What do the saints say about Hagia Sophia? Is the Queen of Cities a city lost forever or a city handed over for a time? And if history is not over, what does the Church’s tradition say about the Divine Liturgy that was interrupted and the priest who disappeared with the chalice?

Today, we will speak only about what exists within Orthodox tradition, patristic teaching, ecclesiastical memory, and apocalyptic literature.

The Church has a basic prophetic principle regarding holy cities: they may be handed over for a time, but they are not destroyed forever. Saint Andrew of Caesarea, interpreting the Book of Revelation, writes that holy cities are delivered to nations for a period, not for annihilation. In other words, holy cities may be given to other peoples for a time, but not for their complete disappearance.

This is the foundation of the Church’s expectation regarding Constantinople. Constantinople is not merely a historical city. It is the seat of a patriarchate, a center of Orthodoxy, and a city dedicated to the Mother of God. Church tradition states that Emperor Constantine dedicated the city to the Virgin Mary, and for this reason, the Church never regarded it as lost but rather as entrusted to others for a period.

Saint Germanus of Constantinople calls it a God-protected city. When a place is considered protected by God, its fall is not understood as an end but

as a trial.

The saints explain why holy cities fall. Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite writes that when sin increases among the people, divine protection is withdrawn. This withdrawal is not eternal. It is corrective and educational.

Thus, the Church views the fall of Constantinople not as a final loss, but as a period of silence. Just as Jerusalem was destroyed and remained for centuries without a temple, yet was not lost, so too there exists the expectation that what has been dedicated to God does not remain forever in foreign hands, because divine grace is not canceled by history.

This is especially true of Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia is not simply a church building. It is a place of theology, a place of councils, and a place where countless liturgies were celebrated.

Saint Symeon of Thessalonica says that a place where the Divine Liturgy has been celebrated remains sanctified until the end of time. Hagia Sophia hosted daily liturgies for centuries. Such a place does not lose its holiness.

Then we come to the year of the fall. Church memory preserves a moving tradition. It says that at the moment Constantinople fell, a Divine Liturgy was being celebrated inside Hagia Sophia. The priest had reached the Eucharistic prayer. The chalice was upon the Holy Table. The people were praying when the conquerors entered.

According to tradition, the priest took the chalice, entered the sanctuary, and disappeared. The mystery was not desecrated. The liturgy was not completed. It was interrupted.

The Church does not say that it ended. It says that it was interrupted. And what is interrupted can continue.

Saint Germanus of Constantinople writes that the Divine Liturgy is a work of the heavenly kingdom. If it belongs to the heavenly kingdom, it cannot be destroyed by an earthly fall. It may become silent, but it does not cease.

For this reason, the Church’s consciousness connects the hope for the city with the liturgy that awaits completion. The Divine Liturgy of Hagia Sophia was never finished. It is waiting.

When will it continue? The Church gives no dates and makes no political predictions. Instead, it offers a spiritual answer. When worship is once again permitted there, when Hagia Sophia serves as a church again, tradition says that the liturgy will continue from the point at which it was interrupted.

The priest with the chalice became a symbol. A symbol that grace never departed from. A symbol that the mystery was not desecrated. A symbol that worship is still waiting.

Thus, in Orthodox consciousness, Constantinople is not a lost city. It is a sanctified city, a city in silence, a city waiting, and a city where one Divine Liturgy was never completed.

I will conclude with the words of Christ: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Empires pass. Cities change. Churches may remain silent for a time. But what has been dedicated to God does not come to an end.

For this reason, the Church remembers the Queen of Cities, Hagia Sophia, the hope associated with them, the interrupted liturgy, and the priest who disappeared with the chalice—not as a matter of the past, but as a matter of hope.

That was our topic for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Next Friday, we will upload the next video. May God bless you all, and have a blessed Lent.

WELL DONE TO THE GIRL

What is your zodiac sign, Irene?

I do not believe in zodiac signs at all.

That’s okay.

I don’t believe in them.

They are anti-Christian.

No, they are not. These are magical things. As Orthodox Christians, we have a duty to say that this is a trap and a deception. These are occult practices. The Church is against them.

Why?

Because the Gospel does not agree with them. God does not approve of them. How could I say something that goes against the law of Christ, against the name of Christ, and the Virgin Mary?

Of course, we all make mistakes. That is why we have spiritual fathers and confession. It is wonderful to confess and receive Holy Communion. There is nothing like it. Nowadays, everyone runs to psychologists and psychiatrists.

Because God helps greatly. He enlightens a person, and then you see things differently—truthfully, in a genuinely Christian way, with truth. When you have confessed and received Communion, your prayers are heard.

Many Christians get involved with Muslims.

That is a betrayal of the soul.

Why do you say that?

Because Christ says so.

Have you ended relationships in the past because they were not Christians?

No, they were all Christians.

What if someone were Catholic?

No. Catholicism is a heresy, my dear. There is only one Gospel of Christ. Catholicism is a heresy. Jehovah’s Witnesses are a heresy. Orthodoxy is the true faith, the living faith.

Some talk to us about zodiac signs. Others are proud. Forgive me, Pavlos. And then there are Buddhas, statues, and all sorts of things. These are idols. They are dolls. They are false gods.

There is only one God—Christ.

Whether they like it or not, I condemn those things. My faith is unwavering, absolute, clear, and eternal in Christ, in the Holy Trinity, in Orthodoxy, in the Virgin Mary, and in the Holy Archangels.

Even if I had been born into a Muslim family, I would still be a Christian.

I am Catholic, and when I visit Greece, I normally receive Communion in the Orthodox Church

.

Why? Am I going to judge you? We are the same.

We are not the same.

We are all brothers and sisters.

We are not the same. You receive communion with a wafer, while the Body and Blood of Christ are bread and wine.

And I will say this about Muslims: many Muslims have beheaded Christians to force them to change their faith, and the Christians said no.

Have we ever cut off anyone’s head to make them become Christian?

Never.

A young model from Russia, Svetlana, recounts a near-death experience

A young model from Russia, Svetlana, recounts a near-death experience and explains why she believes she ended up in hell despite never having harmed anyone.

My dream had always been to become a model. Since I was young, we used to take photos similar to those seen in Playboy. After some time, I received a good offer to work abroad, and I started preparing to leave. Suddenly, I developed a high fever and severe pain. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital. There, the doctors told me I had appendicitis, but during surgery, they discovered I also had peritonitis. They put me under anesthesia, but my heart could not endure it, and I died during the operation.

I found myself in a dark tunnel. It was like a huge well, and I was falling downward at tremendous speed. At first, I was overwhelmed with shock and terror because I understood that I had died.

In that world, a person understands everything. It is as if your eyes are opened, and all the stereotypes you acquired since birth are removed. There, you understand exactly who you are.

My whole life passed before my eyes. I asked myself, “Is that all? Was that my entire life?” I was only twenty-four years old. When you are young, you believe your whole life is still ahead of you and that nothing is over yet. I still had many plans, and suddenly everything was cut short without my consent and without my wanting it.

I knew I was going to hell. I saw that fire. I cannot explain it with words. It is impossible. There are no words on earth that can describe what I felt—the terror, the darkness, and the fear a person experiences when the soul leaves this world and enters the next. That alone may be the greatest punishment; there is nothing worse.

On earth, even the worst person still has hope because there is always tomorrow. A person can still repent and follow God's commandments. We all have tomorrow. It is not true that all suffering is on earth. Earth contains both hell and paradise.

Anyone who had seen hell would give everything to return to earth. They would give away all their possessions and all their happiness just for the chance to come back.

As I tried to justify myself before God, asking why this was happening to me, I could find no excuse. I realized that everything we do on earth—our goals and our actions—is often driven by selfishness. We live within our own self-centeredness.

I understood that I had lived my entire life only for myself. Up to that point, my life had been empty. I had nothing to say in my defense before God because I had not lived for Him at all. I had not kept His commandments. I had not thought about Him. Although I had never harmed anyone, I had done nothing for the God who created me.

Then, in the midst of that terror, I heard words telling me that a person has value in this life only when living close to God. Immediately, I cried out, “My God, please save me, and you will see that I will be different. I will change my whole life.”

I understood that if I passed through the gates of Hades, I would never return. I kept crying, “God, help me. I will live differently. Help me.”

Then I found myself in the intensive care unit. When the doctors came to take me to the morgue, they noticed that I was breathing. They were astonished to see that someone they believed dead had come back to life.

When I realized I had escaped hell, my happiness was indescribable. I was afraid to close my eyes in case I returned to that darkness. I kept repeating, “I was in hell. I was in hell.”

I had many questions, but two were the most important. The first was why I, a good girl who had never harmed anyone, ended up in hell. The second was how a person could avoid going there.

Later, I began reading the Bible and the Gospel, and I found my answer. The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth and died to save me so that I would not go to hell.

My friends and acquaintances called me and said, “Svetlana, don’t take it so seriously. Continue your life. Pursue your career. You are beautiful and talented. You can achieve anything. Why are you burying yourself every day?”

Eventually, I decided to return to modeling. However, I planned only to take modest photographs rather than provocative ones.

The moment I made that decision, I felt unbearable pain in my abdomen. An ambulance came, and it was the same people who had taken me before. The same doctors examined me, and I realized this might be my end.

The most frightening part was that the pain was so intense that I believed I could not have endured it for even another minute. I could not drink water. After surgery, when the tubes were removed, there was a bottle of water beside me. As soon as I drank it, I asked myself, “What could be better in this life than being free of pain, being able to drink water, and having God beside you?”

When I left the hospital, I went to church the very next day. Before, I had been the star of my own life. From that moment on, I wanted God to be the light within my soul.

I believe God brought me back from hell and gave me life again so that I could tell everyone what I experienced—women and men alike. Do not go to hell. Turn to God. Get to know Him and dedicate your life to Jesus Christ so that He may become the Lord of your life.

TRUE EVENT-ΠΡΑΓΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΣ

One night, on Easter Monday in the year 1964, after midnight and just before going to sleep, I went out into the little garden behind our house and stood there for a while, gazing at the dark sky filled with stars. Once, a blessed elder had told me that around these hours the heavens open.

I would have stood there until dawn, as though I had no body nor any bond with the earth. But I thought someone inside the house might wake up and worry about me being missing. So I went back inside and lay down.

Sleep had hardly overtaken me. I do not know whether I was awake or asleep, and I saw before me a man with a strange appearance.

He was yellow all over like a dead man, yet his eyes were open, and he looked at me in terror. His face was like a mask, like a mummy, with his skin shiny, dark-yellow, and stuck upon the skull with all its hollows visible. He breathed shortly, as though out of breath.

In one hand he held some strange object, which I could not understand what it was, and then with the other he clutched his chest as if he were in pain. That creature made me shudder. I looked at him, and he looked at me without speaking, as though waiting for me to recognize him. And truly, although he looked so strange, it was as if a voice spoke in my mind:

“It is so-and-so.”

As soon as I heard the voice, I recognized who he was.

Then he opened his mouth and sighed. But his voice sounded as if it came from very far away, as though from the depths of a well.

I could see that he was in great agony. His hands, his feet, his eyes — everything showed that he was suffering terribly. In my despair, I moved toward him to help him, but he motioned with his hand for me to stop, not to come near. He began groaning in such a way that I froze. Then he said to me:

“I did not come on my own, but they sent me. Here I tremble constantly. I am in great confusion. I want to die, but I cannot. Ah, everything you used to say, Fotis, proved true. Do you remember, a few days before I died, when you came to my house and spoke about religion? Two of my unbelieving friends were there too, just like me. While you were speaking, they were smiling mockingly. After you left, they said to me: ‘It’s a pity that Fotis has such a mind and yet believes in the nonsense that old women believe.’

Another day, I told you, as I had many times before: ‘Come on, Fotis, gather money; otherwise you’ll die on a straw mat. Look at how much money I have, and still I want more.’ Then you told me: ‘Do you have some contract with Death guaranteeing that you will live as many years as you wish to enjoy your old age?’

And I said to you, 'Nonsense. I am now seventy-five; I will live past one hundred. I have secured my children’s future. My son earns money. I married my daughter to a rich man from Abyssinia. My wife and I have everything we need. Not like you, listening to what the priests say: “A Christian ending to our life.” What will you gain from a Christian ending — money? Better to have a full pocket and not care about anything. I’ll even give you charity. Why did your compassionate God make poor people anyway? So that I may toss them crumbs? Ah, you feed lazy people just so you can enter paradise! Ha ha! I am a priest’s son, you know, and I understand all these tricks very well. Let small-minded people believe them—not someone like you, Fotis, who has such intelligence and is wasting it. At this rate, you’ll die before me. You’ll destroy yourself and your family. But I tell you and sign it as a doctor that I will live to be one hundred and ten years old.’

As he was saying these things, he twisted back and forth as though he were roasting upon a grill, letting out terrible groans from his mouth.

‘Ah! Ah! Oh!’

He calmed down a little and continued:

‘Those were the things I used to say. But a few days later, I died. I died and lost the wager. What terror, what horror I went through! One moment I was sinking down, the next I was being thrown upward, crying out, "Mercy! Mercy!” But no one heard me. A current tossed me around as though I were a dead rat. What I have suffered until now and what I still suffer! What agony this is! Everything you said proved true. You won the wager.

Back in the world where you still live, I was considered the clever one. I was a doctor and had learned to speak so that everyone listened to me. I mocked religion. I spoke only of tangible things. But now I see that the things I once called fairy tales and fantasies are the truly tangible things. Tangible is the agony in which I now exist. Ah! This must be the worm that does not sleep. This must be the gnashing of teeth.’

At those words, he vanished from before my eyes, and I could only hear his groans fading slowly away.

Sleep took me for a little while, but suddenly I felt an icy hand pushing me. I opened my eyes and saw him again before me. This time, he looked even more dreadful and smaller. He had become like a little child with a large old man’s head shaking from side to side.

He opened his mouth and said:

‘In a little while, dawn will come, and those who sent me will come to take me away.’

I asked him:

‘Who sent you?’

He muttered some confused words that I could not understand. Then he said:

"Where I am, there are many others—those who mocked you for your faith. And now they understand that cleverness goes no farther than the graveyard.

There are also some whom you treated kindly, yet they slandered you, and the more you forgave them, the worse they became. For an evil man, instead of rejoicing at kindness, he becomes bitter because kindness makes him feel defeated. Those people are in an even worse state than I am. They cannot leave their dark prison to come and find you as I did. They suffer terribly because they are scourged by the whip of love, as a saint once said.

How different the world is from the way we see it — completely upside down from our clever understanding. Now we understand that our cleverness was foolishness, our words were wicked trifles, and our joys were falsehood and deception.

You who have your hearts in Christ and for whom His word is truth—the only truth—you won the great wager placed between believers and unbelievers. The wager, which I, the miserable one, lost, and now I tremble and sigh and find no rest.

Truly, in Hades, there is no repentance anymore.

Woe to those who walk as we once walked while we were upon the earth. Our flesh had become drunk, and we mocked those who believed in God and in the life to come. And the crowds applauded us.

We called you fools. We ridiculed you. And the more kindly you accepted our mockery, the more our wickedness grew.

Even now, I see how grieved you become by the behavior of evil people, yet how patiently you endure the poisonous arrows we shoot from our mouths, calling you hypocrites, deceivers, and misleaders of the people.

If those miserable people were here where I am now and saw things as they truly are, they would tremble at what they are doing today.

I want to appear before them and tell them to change their path, but I do not have permission, just as the rich man who begged Patriarch Abraham to send poor Lazarus did not receive permission either.

And this is so that those who sin may become fully worthy of condemnation, and those who walk the path of God may become worthy of salvation.

‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.’

As Scripture says.

After these words, I lost sight of him before me.

You will see him

 

Many people have encountered the other dimension and know this.

We think that because we do not see the Saints, the Virgin Mary, the Angels, or our loved ones who have passed away, they do not see us either.

A man asks how he can cope with the death of his beloved innocent child.

Death cannot truly be “dealt with.” It is something beyond every human ability.

Those who reach such spiritual heights, like Elder Joseph the Hesychast, to whom the Virgin Mary said, “I will take you on the day of my feast,” did not fear death. When the Feast of the Dormition came, and he was still alive, he became distressed and wondered, “Why am I still here? Why am I still alive, since the Virgin Mary said she would take me?”

We become distressed when we are about to die. He was distressed because he was still living.

For someone to reach such spiritual heights, a Christian life must come first—a life within the Church, with the sacraments, with deep prayer, with love, and with charity.

When a person lives this way, they will not grieve excessively either for their own death or for the death of someone they love. A Christian knows that everything does not end here.

Unfortunately, this is something we cannot truly understand unless we experience it ourselves.

We think that because we do not see the Saints, the Virgin Mary, the Angels, or our loved ones who have fallen asleep in death, they do not see us either. But they do see us.

This is a reality experienced by countless people throughout these two thousand years. They know that although they will grieve for the death of a loved one or for their own death, the grief only goes so far. Beyond that, they know they will meet again.

And this is something they know, not merely believe.

They know it in countless ways, including through encounters with people who passed away years earlier—sometimes even people they had never met—and yet those departed know them and communicate with them in many ways.

This is a story spanning two thousand years. Unless someone experiences it personally, they cannot easily accept it. It goes against ordinary logic. It is beyond logic and above logic.

Yet this knowledge rests on the understanding that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — the God of the living, not of the dead.

This means that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all our loved ones are alive because God is the God of the living.

Many people have encountered the other dimension and know this.

Many have experienced people from that other reality coming into this one, speaking with us, communicating with us, and giving us certainty.

Either we go there and return, or they come here and return to where they came from. What remains is knowledge.

For two thousand years, Christians have known that death does not truly exist. What changes is only the form and manner of life.

Now we live in this way. When we close our eyes here, we open them somewhere else and continue living differently.

When Saints appear and speak to us, it is not imagination. It is not merely personal emotion, because they appear to others too and speak to others about things we ourselves have asked for. Therefore, it is real communication, not fantasy.

But unless someone experiences these things personally, they cannot fully accept them because we are trapped within rational thinking—within the logic that two plus two equals four.

That logic is overturned by the mystery of one and one and one being not three gods, but one God.

We must live these things to truly know them.

Ελληνικά

Η Ψυχή και η Τελική Κρίση

Η τελική κρίση δεν είναι πράξη καταδίκης ή ανατροπής, αλλά η απόφαση της ψυχής κατά τη στιγμή του χωρισμού της από το σώμα και τελικά η πραγματοποίηση της ένωσής της με το μεταμορφωμένο και αναστημένο σώμα, με το οποίο η ψυχή θα συνεχίσει να ζει αιώνια.

Μετά τον χωρισμό από το σώμα, η ψυχή διατηρεί τις αισθήσεις της και επομένως αισθάνεται, αντιλαμβάνεται και ασκεί όλες τις πνευματικές της ενέργειες.

📖 Αποκάλυψη 6:9-10
📖 Αποκάλυψη 7:15
📖 Α’ Πέτρου 3:19
📖 Εβραίους 12:23
📖 Λουκάς 16:27-28

Η λέξη «ύπνος», με την οποία συχνά περιγράφεται ο θάνατος, δεν αναφέρεται στην ψυχή αλλά στο σώμα. Στο Ματθαίος 27:52 διαβάζουμε ότι πολλοί άγιοι που είχαν «κοιμηθεί» αναστήθηκαν.

Η Τελική Κρίση: Η Δευτέρα Παρουσία του Ιησού Χριστού

Η τελική κρίση θα πραγματοποιηθεί κατά τη Δευτέρα Παρουσία του Ιησού Χριστού. Αυτή η σταθερή πίστη της Εκκλησίας καταγράφεται στο Σύμβολο της Πίστεως:

«Και πάλιν ερχόμενον μετά δόξης κρίναι ζώντας και νεκρούς.»

Η ακριβής ώρα της Δευτέρας Παρουσίας είναι άγνωστη και, σύμφωνα με την Αποκάλυψη, δεν μπορεί να προβλεφθεί ή να καθοριστεί με κανέναν τρόπο.

Русский

Душа и Последний Суд

Последний суд — это не акт осуждения или уничтожения, а решение души в момент её отделения от тела и окончательное соединение с преображённым и воскресшим телом, с которым душа будет жить вечно.

После отделения от тела душа сохраняет свои чувства и потому ощущает, воспринимает и проявляет все свои духовные силы.

📖 Откровение 6:9-10
📖 Откровение 7:15
📖 1-е Петра 3:19
📖 Евреям 12:23
📖 Луки 16:27-28

Слово «сон», которым часто описывается смерть, относится не к душе, а к телу. В Евангелии от Матфея 27:52 говорится, что многие святые, «уснувшие», воскресли.

Последний Суд: Второе Пришествие Иисуса Христа

Последний суд произойдёт во время Второго Пришествия Иисуса Христа. Эта твёрдая вера Церкви записана в Символе Веры:

«И снова грядущего со славою судить живых и мёртвых.»

Точное время Второго Пришествия неизвестно и, согласно Апокалипсису, не может быть предсказано или определено никаким способом.

English

The Soul and the Final Judgment

The final judgment is not an act of condemnation or destruction, but the decision of the soul at the moment of its separation from the body, and ultimately the realization of its union with the transformed and resurrected body, with which the soul will continue to live forever.

After separation from the body, the soul retains its senses and therefore feels, perceives, and exercises all its spiritual energies.

📖 Revelation 6:9-10
📖 Revelation 7:15
📖 1 Peter 3:19
📖 Hebrews 12:23
📖 Luke 16:27-28

The word “sleep,” by which death is often described, refers not to the soul but to the body. In Matthew 27:52, we read that many saints who had “fallen asleep” were raised.

The Final Judgment: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

The final judgment will take place at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This firm belief of the Church is recorded in the Nicene Creed:

“He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.”

The exact hour of the Second Coming is unknown and, according to the Apocalypse, cannot be predicted or determined by any means.

References include the Bible and the Nicene Creed.

 

Powerful earthquake

 

PAY ATTENTION HERE

 Very close to this threat, Hellenism will become afraid and withdraw inwardly, and there will be great repentance. Listen to what the result of this fear will be — it will be positive.

And this repentance that will arise from fear, intimidation, and the threat of the Turks will lead, he says, the Greeks into the immediately following events, which I will mention briefly and generally: Greece and Cyprus will be the only countries with great safety for our children and our people,

while other countries of Western Europe, America, Russia, and the Middle East will be experiencing a world war.

Greece and Cyprus will not. Therefore, they will be safe countries where others will come to live and seek protection.

You know that some people of God say that what is happening now with the Turks — those leaving Turkey because they cannot endure Erdoğan’s regime and going to the islands and other parts of Greece, buying houses, renting homes, seeking asylum, and feeling that Greece is a place of safety despite all of Greece’s problems —

they say that the saints foretold this, and that these people will come to love Greece and Orthodoxy so much as a faith that they themselves will choose it.

And when Turkey calms down after its great destructions caused by the arrogance of its leaders and its people, then, he says, these same people will become missionaries in Turkey.

We are speaking about unimaginable events, which, however, are already beginning to unfold through the events that have started.

Now after these events, Russia, for its own reasons and not out of love for us,

will wage a terrible war lasting only a few days against Turkey.

You understand that Putin has many reasons to want to secure his southern flank, especially the Caucasus region — the countries surrounding the Caucasus.

Georgia is playing a role there that it will pay for dearly.

Russia will launch the attack against Turkey. It will drag not only Turkey but also Georgia into destruction, because NATO is establishing a base in Georgia, a monitoring site for Russian missiles.

So this will become the excuse. The other NATO powers and the Chinese will allow Russia to strike Turkey.

It makes me wonder — I think to myself, with my suspicious and cautious mind — whether this may even already be agreed upon.

And Turkey will be struck mercilessly.

Not because of attacks in the Aegean or intimidation, but for their own interests.

One of the rumored and discussed interests described by geostrategic analysts is the Montreux Convention concerning the passage of Russian ships, among others, through the Bosporus Strait.

Turkey knows very well that if there is a military incident in the Aegean or elsewhere, it has the right to close the straits.

What does this mean? That Russia would not be able to supply its Tartus base and its other war zones with weapons.

You understand, therefore, that the situation is extremely volatile.

As a result of this major conflict, Turkey will be forced during the course of this war to withdraw its troops from Cyprus.

So we will see a complete withdrawal of the Turkish army from Cyprus.

At that point, great wisdom will be needed from us regarding how we manage an occupied northern Cyprus that will no longer have an army present.

It is not simple. It is complex and requires control not only of the Turkish Cypriots and the settlers, but mainly of ourselves —

mainly our own emotions and impatience to see our lands free.

The time will come, he says, when Cypriots will walk down the streets and out of every five people, three will be foreigners and two will be Cypriots.

People — not only Cypriots — will search for donkeys and not find them, he says.

Why will we be searching for donkeys? Not to make picturesque farms and charge tourists entrance fees, because everything in Cyprus has become commercialized for tourism.

Some tell me, “Don’t say these things, Bishop of Morphou, because our tourism will suffer.”

Out of fear we must appear to be a safe country.

Everything I say means that we too are part of humanity, and all humanity will suffer.

The world war that will follow after the events in Turkey —

when they see that a huge problem is developing in Turkey, the Western powers will intervene and then wage a great war in Constantinople and its surrounding areas.

And then the partition into three parts will occur, and there the world war will begin.

And they told them, “But you know,” they said, “the saint had humor and would tell us one eleventh of what he saw, obviously because we could not endure hearing the whole truth.”

And what did the saint say? "Well, children,” he said, “so many millions of Chinese soldiers will come to fight Israel. Well, the people will become thirsty on the way. So, if one million Chinese each drink one glass of water, what are one million Chinese to the Chinese? Nothing. So if each one drinks one glass,” he says, “the Euphrates will dry up.”
So, he was trying to ease our fear a little.

And now what shall we say? They show us these things on YouTube now… Yes, even the Euphrates—you can practically walk through it. A fearful thing indeed.

And why has the Euphrates dried up — or rather, why is it drying up? That is the correct phrase. An atheist, a rationalist, will tell you: “The Turks built enormous dams further up in Turkey, and they hold back the waters of the Euphrates and do not allow them to flow down into the Middle East to irrigate the land.”

And this region, which for centuries has been watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers… well, this is a logical explanation.

Therefore, that is why I say these are dangerous matters. If I now sit and tell you, “Ah, you see? The Euphrates dried up. Therefore, wherever you are, Armageddon has come”… but what is Armageddon? It is not simply the Third World War. It is the final war, through which everything will be shaken. “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” The final war that will happen shortly before the Second Coming of the Lord.

So, any interpretation—especially from those who base themselves on the internet—listen carefully to this, because the internet causes great damage, though to be fair, it also performs great missionary work. It depends on how much discernment you have and whether you go ask a proper spiritual person, as the doctor I mentioned earlier did.

So yes, there is danger of delusion if this brief prophecy of the saint—and of whom, please? Of the beloved disciple of the Lord, John the Theologian—if we try to interpret it only according to what is happening today in the Euphrates River, there is danger we will fall into delusion.

And how do I know that tomorrow the Kurds, who apparently may form a state, will not take control of those dams the Turks built? What if they break the dams and the water begins flowing again and the river fills once more? Do you understand what I mean?

Could uncontrolled obsession with prophecies insult the memory of the saints because of contradictory and conflicting prophecies that everyone claims they read or heard from modern saints and insists are true?

Already we are seeing how the memory of a great saint like Άγιος Παΐσιος is being abused because everyone attributes various prophecies to him that the man never actually said.

And then someone may reach the other extreme and say, “They are all lies.”
Well, no, my bishop, not everything is lies—God forbid. Glory to God. The disciples of Saint Paisios are alive: Father Euthymios, Father Gregory, Father Paisios the mathematician, the nuns of Souroti, and the nuns of the Transfiguration monastery—serious people. We have the books of Saint Paisios; we read them, and they contain what he himself actually said.

So you see, we end up going to the other extreme: “Everything is false.” No, not like that.

We offend the memory of the saints. Of course, we ourselves may cause this offense when we deal with prophecies with excessive zeal. Everything needs discernment.

And you know something? It is not you laypeople who are responsible. Nor only the priests. The bishops are responsible too. All bishops should have occupied themselves with Saint Paisios. All bishops should have occupied themselves with Saint Sophia of Kleisoura, who uttered terrifying prophecies, and with all the saints who prophesied.

Because what do some people do now? Some bishops speak only about miracles. “Ah yes, Saint Iakovos stopped an airplane with his foot…” Real miracles indeed. I even had painted the miracle Saint Iakovos performed, and you will see it when you come to the feast of Saint Iakovos at the mansion we built at Empa, Akaki. You will see a huge icon showing him holding the airplane and thus saving 250 people who were in danger.

But we should not concern ourselves only with the miracles of the saints. One of the miracles among our saints is also the prophetic word. That is why when you open the Gospel you constantly hear about the gift of prophecy.

“First apostles, second prophets, then teachers,” says Apostle Paul. He also speaks of gifts: administrations, tongues… and says, “Desire earnestly the greater gifts.” Seek the higher gifts. Meaning the apostolic gift is bringing people to the Orthodox faith.

Have you thought about what it means for someone to walk around crazy Limassol bringing people to confession? That is a great thing in such an age full of madness and atheism. That is an apostolic gift.

And after that comes the gift of prophecy. Yet many bishops locked this gift away in a closet. Some even reached the terrible delusion of saying that prophets existed only in the Old Testament.

Excuse me—is not Ιωάννης ο Πρόδρομος the greatest of the prophets? And what prophecy did he say? Only one. And it was not even about the future. It was about his own time. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He declared that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, was the Messiah.

That was all. And he told his disciples, “Leave me. I must decrease and He must increase. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of His sandals.”

And the disciples of John the Baptist—Apostle Andrew and young Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος—left John and followed Christ in obedience to the Forerunner. And this man is the greatest among the saints.

As for the other prophets, some lived 400 years before Christ, Isaiah 800 years before Christ, Jeremiah 600 years before Christ, and Daniel 300 years before Christ. Do you know that many prophecies of the Old Testament are still yet to be fulfilled?

There is a prophecy saying that Damascus, the capital of Syria, when this worldwide war comes—what we call the Third World War—nothing will remain. Nothing. One of the oldest cities in the world, and it is written in the prophets of the Old Testament.

So what I want to say is that in our days, bishops, priests, and the people of God have been led into ignorance and superficiality. The same would have happened to me had I not gone on pilgrimages to Syria, Lebanon, and the Holy Land in 2009, 2010, and 2011. And if two or three people of God had not told me that great confusion is coming upon the world and that I, being bold and loud, should concern myself with the prophetic word. I did not begin this on my own. It was not my hobby.

And especially after I met Saint Galaktia in 2016—Saint Galaktia, who reached very high measures of holiness, a female Porphyrios—and do you remember what she told me? She told me what the spiritual causes of the world war would be: abortions without repentance; unnatural acts that would become laws, both within and outside marriage; and then also magic and satanism.

So you see, the true saints are concerned and possess a complete picture both of the world and of the Church.

And do not forget the beautiful saying of the Gospel: “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.”

And I, too, must be careful. Not every prophecy I read or hear do I immediately repeat here. Usually, I speak only of those prophecies that are either in the Revelation of Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος or among the newer saints, only after I verify that not just one but two or three saints repeated them. For does not the Gospel say, "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established"?