Our beloved brother in Christ Ipodqkon Georgi
(Atonski / from Mount Athos) has passed away
Below I post the only picture I have of this beloved brother in
Christ
ipodqkon Georgi You see our brother on the right side
of the Metropolitan of Varna and Great Preslav Kiril.
Georgi served as an ipodqkon in the Church Holy Trinity here in
Dobrich and was well known and loved by the Church community
there.
He also was a really good loving and decent man completely devoted
to our Orthodox faith, standing firm in the faith.
He worked for many months in Holy mount Athos as a repair workers
cook, where he cooked for about 70 people.
Before he worked in Holy Mount Athos, he used to be a restaurant
chef in Sandanski.
Since about 6 or 7 months time he become sick, his assumption for
the sickness was that it might be of a bad sploit old food which
was consumed by accident by him and the rest of the workers.
He shared with me that all of the workers felt sick after eating it
but all of them except him has vomited the food afterwards.
He gets poisoned and urgently transfered back in a hospital in
Bulgaria. Consequently he went under a lot of examinations which
failed to proof the exact type of sickness he was suffering
from.
He was prescribed to eat only fasting food (some bread, apples, oil
and a few of other light meals). He was prescribed a lot of
medications he tried but none of them really helped him and he on a
numerous times has shared with me he is not feeling weel, though I
was not really believing his health situation is so severe.
The exact state he was experiencing was infirmity, headaches, skin
rushes, he could hardly stay on his foots for more than few hours,
as lastly he shared with me.
He also got rashes from most of the food he consumed. His life was
a real tragedy as I remember I saw him just 3 weeks ago and he was
about to go to Sofia for some examinations.
Even though his hardships in life, he was not loosing faith and
believed all that was happening was according to God's will and did
accepted his sickness with humility.
During the about 7 months he spend in sickness he was many times
being hospitalized in Hospitals in Dobrich, Varna and Sofia.
In each of the hospitals he spend a couple of weeks on injections
and live sustaining medical systems.
During this periods, when he was in his home here in Dobrich
somewhere in Balik, he often chatted with me over Skype, giving me
good spiritual advices.
He also often called my landline phone to consult on various stuff
concerning his problems with his notebook. As in the last days he
could only lay and use the computer.
The computer he had was one of the few possessions he had, in his
last days he did not have money at all as all of his savings were
spend for examinations and drugs...
I remember still one time when I walked with him towards the
bus-station and I was in a terrible desperation, being
faithless.
He instructed me I should pray and told me not to despair and stop
smoking as I was nervously smoking...
He lived a life similar in many ways to the life of the saints. He
had a strong love for monasticism and had the desire to either
become a monk or priest.
He told me many miraculous things he has seen and heard when he was
in holy Mount Athos.
Last time I saw my beloved brother Georgi near the Church saint
George (sveti Georgi) and for my grief I behaved partly as an
asshole, and I repent I was not behaving better.
In this last time I saw him he shared for his great gratitude for
God that he was allowed to visit the holy Lands (Jerusalem) The
Holy Sepulchure church in Jerusalem.
Even in this last days, obviously living in infirmity he had his
strong dedication to the Church and come to the Church services for
Resurrection / (Easter) and was mostly being present on holy
liturgies in Sundays.
The last time I saw him in the Church he did the Gospel and red
some psalms. He was always serious and looked for the spiritual in
everything, very rare kind of person to meet today.
Georgi blessed me with a couple of small icons (two copies of icons
of Saint Georgi [Fanailska and Araviiska] miraculous icons from
mount Athos as well as an icon picture of the Altar of Holy
Sepulchure Jerusalem church), and I pray in front of them when I
pray to God.
These are two of the icons brother Georgi give me as a gift and
blessing from Holy Mount athos:
Saint Georgi Zographus Miracle making icon
My beloved brother in Christ Georgi (God Forgive him / Bog da
prosti) has also blessed me with a wonderful digital movie about
the Bulgarian monastery in Holy Mount Athos Zographus. The movie
about Zographus is explaining thoroughfully the history of the holy
cloister and showing the originals of the Holy miraculous icons and
monks who spoke about today's spirituality and what is it to be a
monk on holy mount athos (one of the most holy places on earth
today).
I know also that Georgi was a wonderful a really talanted cook
(even a chief) as he was responsible to take an eye for 6 cooks
during his work as chief in Sandanski.
In the just recently passed away Resurrection day, he has cooked an
Easter cakes and banica as well as some other meals using a holy
mount athos recipee.
After the Resurrection early Holy liturgy was over we ate together
with the brothers and sisters from Georgi's delicious meals
praising God and rejoicing for our Lord has Resurrected from the
dead...
I will really miss my namesake (adash) as I used to call him often.
I just hope one day I would see him again if by God's grace I'm
allowed to enter Heaven.
Just about 1 year ago his mother passed away, then some few years
before his father has passed away and now not more than a year
after his parents he is gone as well.
When I look over this tragedy it's really hard to understand it but
using the Holy Scriptures, one can easily understand why it
happened that way as,
His early departure from this life is according to the words in the
Holy Bible in
Isaiah 57:1:
The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the
righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
I hope
ipodqkon Georgi will find grace in front of God to
pray for me the sinner and the rest of us who're still living in
ours sins on this sinful earth.
As the memory of the righteous lasts forever he will be forever
remembered as I believe he was in the number of the rightous
...
Please Orthodox Brothers and sisters pray for ipodqkon's Georgi's
soul that our merciful God forgives him his trespasses and grants
him an ever lasting joy with all the saints in the heavenly church,
in paradise!
God forgive you our and my beloved brother Georgi! Let your memory
last forever. Amen!