1931–1999
Saint Eumenios Saridakis
A twentieth-century Cretan monk and beloved spiritual father known for his humility and unceasing prayer.
Biography
Eumenios (born Constantine Saridakis) was born in 1931 to a poor family in Ethia, Heraklion, Crete, and lost his father at the age of two. While still a child, tradition holds that the Theotokos appeared to him and foretold that he would become a priest.
He entered the Monastery of Saint Niketas in Crete as a novice and was tonsured a monk in 1951. He lived with strict asceticism, hard work and unceasing prayer, became a priest and a beloved spiritual father to many of the faithful, until his death in Athens in 1999.