Saint Porfyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kafsokalyvite (Greek: Όσιος Πορφύριος ο Καυσοκαλυβίτης) was a Greek Athonite hieromonk and Eastern Orthodox Saint known for his gifts of spiritual discernment.
St. Porfyrios was born on February 7, 1906, in the village of Agios Ioannis, which translates to St. John Karystias, in the province of Evia in Greece. His parents, Leonidas and Eleni Bairaktaris, baptized him as Evangelos, and he was the fourth out of five siblings.
Through his role as a spiritual father, Elder Porfyrios became known to an ever-wider circle of Orthodox followers, and his sainthood was declared by the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on November 27, 2013. In 2014, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decreed that St. Porphyrios’ name be added to their church calendar and commemorated on December 2.
While he served many ill and dying, he himself was not spared a similar fate. He was wracked with pain from an incessant stomach ailment. Seeking the solitude of the forest, Porphyrios harbored a life-long dream to found a female convent near Mount Penteli in the northeast suburbs of Athens. He tried for many years to establish such a community there, but it was not to be. Instead at the end of his life, he accumulated enough funding to purchase lands in Malakassa on the slopes of Mt Oropos. What started out as a humble trailer transformed into the towering oasis that one witnesses today.
The Convent of Holy Transfiguration of Christ is a site of spiritual refuge, best visited during the week during its Vesper service at 6 pm, away from the weekend flocks.
Saint Porfyrios Spiritual Tour by The Greek Taxi pays visits to the Convent of Holy Transfiguration of Christ in Milesi as well as the Saint’s birthplace in Agios Ioannis and guarantees private access to Elder Porfyrios private house in the village.