Also known as Acacius of Kavsokalyvia · New Acacius
An ascetic of Mount Athos who lived at the Kavsokalyvia skete near the cell of Saint Maximus, attaining a great old age through a life of strict asceticism and prayer.
Feast Day
April 12
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.
Our Venerable Father Acacius the Younger of Kavsokalyvia, Ascetic of Mount Athos
Life
Acacius the Younger of Kavsokalyvia (born in the 1630s; died April 12, 1730) was a Greek ascetic of Mount Athos associated with the Cave of Saint Maximus the Hut-Burner near the skete of Kavsokalyvia. Remembered for an austere regimen of fasting, vigil, and unceasing prayer, he became a guide to the brethren of the skete and a spiritual father to several monks who later died as martyrs. The epithet "the Younger" distinguishes him from earlier saints of the same name.
Sources record that he reached an advanced age, nearly one hundred years old, and that he reposed on April 12, 1730, the date on which he is commemorated in the Eastern Orthodox calendar.
Timeline 4 moments
ReadHide
1630sBirthAccording to tradition he was born Anastasios in the 1630s in the village of Golitsa (later renamed Agios Akakios) in the region of Karditsa, Greece.
c. 1650sMonastic tonsureAt about the age of twenty-three he entered the Monastery of Sourvia at Zagora, near Volos, where he received the monastic tonsure and the name Akakios. He is also linked to the Holy Trinity monastery of Saint Dionysius of Olympus at Zagora.
1660sSettlement on Mount AthosHe moved to the southern tip of Mount Athos and, after visiting several of its monasteries, settled as a hermit at the Cave of Saint Maximus near Kavsokalyvia on the advice of his father-confessor, Father Galacteon. He also spent time at the Monastery of Dionysiou and the Skete of Pantokrator.
April 12, 1730ReposeHe reposed at nearly one hundred years of age, reportedly having foretold his own death. April 12 is kept as his feast.
Contributions & Legacy
3 contributions
ReadHide
Ascetic life and teaching
Sources describe his discipline as severe. In place of bread he is said to have eaten dry grass, which he crushed with a piece of marble. Asked how much a monk ought to sleep, he held that even half an hour was sufficient for a true monk, and he taught that to subdue the flesh a monk must practice two virtues above all: fasting and vigil.
The synaxarion relates that he received the gifts of unceasing mental prayer and of divine revelations, and that he experienced visions associated with Saint Maximus of Kavsokalyvia, in whose former cave he dwelt. The igumen Neophytus is said to have handed Acacius his own staff and to have asked him to serve as superior of the brethren until his last breath.
Disciples
He is remembered as the spiritual father of several monks of the Athonite community, among them three who are venerated as Neomartyrs: Romanos, Pachomios, and Nikodimos.
Relics and shrines
His relics are reported to be preserved at the Monastery of Dionysiou and at Kavsokalyvia. He later moved to a lower cave near Kavsokalyvia that came to bear his name, and a spring in the area is known as the Holy Water of Saint Acacius.
