By Zina Lysandros Panagidis, Philologist:
Our grandfather Panais of Ilam was a holy man, a cosmopolitan, a man who smelled and radiated the Grace of God.
Of course, the first time you saw him remains indelibly engraved in your memory for as long as you live. A thin, cachectic man, sitting in an armchair, wrapped in a colorful blanket from the waist down, with his fingers intertwined, or awake knitting, with his coat and shawl, all black.
But as you looked his face radiated the Grace of God. "Everything that radiates has to do with joy, with hope, with happiness, with the brilliance of carefree innocence", emphasizes Nikolaos Mesogaias. His white hair framed a smiling face, with a sparkling and thoughtful look, full of kindness, meekness and cheerfulness, which radiated his being and made him so lovable. But at the same time he exuded a wonderful power of soul.
Inside his refugee home in Agioi Anargyroi in Larnaca, we experienced the Lysian hospitality, the joy, the cheerfulness and the joy that the contact with God offers. You felt that God lives in there. The laughter came out abundant, gargling, redemptive.
I also remember having dinner at their house with a few good friends. I remember with a lot of love sitting around him and waiting for his words that were a spur in our soul. Cute words, words of an enlightened man, words of humility, simplicity, words empirically from his many years of devotion to our Orthodox Faith.
Many times he spoke in parables and warned us like a star. Near him every problem seemed very small, because he had a way of throwing balm on people's wounds, sympathizing with them and praying day and night for many of our fellow human beings.
Of course, a man like his grandfather Panai must have had many temptations. He must have fought hard to reach these levels of holiness. But he was also the chosen one of Divine Grace, a vessel of election.
That is why he radiated this radiance, radiating all over as if he were talking about God, the Virgin Mary, his Virgin of the Solution who served all the years he lived in the Solution, and the Saints.
Elder Ephraim, my classmate from Peristeronopigi, says: “He had an uninterrupted sense of the presence of the god and he loved the Virgin Mary very much. This caused him constant anxiety and, often, many tears. Many times she confessed that she felt Her Grace. These experiences remind us of those of Saint Silouan of Athonite ".
And the abbot of Vatopedi Monastery concludes: "The special love for the Virgin Mary is characteristic of those who have followed the path of virtue and perfection."
At the same time, I would like to add that the ancient Greeks used to say: "Oia is the form and so is the soul". It was this purity and the agitation of his soul that was reflected in his face. It was the light of love and truth, the light of spiritual beauty.
Another thing I would like to mention is what the Metropolitan of Morphou Neophytos said in an interview on the blog of the Vatopedi Monastery about his grandfather Panais, that they were friends with his grandfather Hadjiflourentzos from Milia, Famagusta, next to Lefkonikos. In fact, Hadjiflourentzos visited them, grandfather Panais and grandfather Vassilis, going to Stavrovouni on his bicycle.
Both holy people warned their villagers about the evil that would come to our place. Grandpa Panais said that it was a pity that they were building such big houses, since they would not be happy. Especially for a cinema of Lysis, which was turned from summer to winter, he would say to one of his fellow villagers who would tell me, "God forbid, God forbid!".
Another Lysiotis recalls that when he was eight years old, an eighteen-year-old child died, and the women cried all night long like a dance of ancient tragedy. At one point, he heard them say: "Panais tou Ilamiou is coming" and everyone was waiting in awe to see him. As soon as he arrived, he started talking to them, and the whole atmosphere changed. The women who used to smile, even the happy mother, were smiling.
Grandpa Panais died on December 30, 1989, after a test with his health, while he never regretted the physical pain that afflicted him. We all remember how his whole house smelled all the way outside. That day we all felt that we were burying a saint, as the abbot of the Stavrovouni Monastery said.
This was the grandfather Panais of Ilami. A man who served in Lysi the church of Panagia, ran to comfort his mourning villagers, to help our suffering fellow human beings with the generosity of his heart and the generosity of his soul. And then a refugee sang in the church of Agia Thekla, just outside Larnaca, with his thin characteristic voice.
Undoubtedly, our grandfather was insincere, genuine, genuinely humble, pure, forgiving with others. He had in his early life the God-given desire for deification. Let us also remember Saint Gregory Palamas who preaches that "the substance of deification is purity".
Undoubtedly, his life had quality and integrity. With repentance, prayerful patience and untouched patience in pain he managed to sanctify, according to the admonition of our Lord: "In your patience you have acquired your souls".
In addition, near him we experienced the warmth of insincere, unwavering love. He was a celestial figure who magnetized us, a charismatic personality. who embodied the saying: "Those who love God always cooperate in good".
It is worth noting that in Lysi he, together with his "best man", as his brother Vassilis used to say, pioneered the establishment of the Religious Association, where the services of the Supper and the Greetings took place. Many of his students, while some of them became nuns, whom we met at his home, as well as many other brothers, among them Elder Gabriel, the current abbot of the Monastery of the Apostle Barnabas.
The old man Panais was the true man of God, who when you were near him, conveyed to you the joy of life and peace, "as I have peace", as Saint Seraphim of Sarof used to say. He was, indeed, a cosmopolitan, a papadiamanti figure, an akakos, philanthropist and god-worshiper of prayer.
He did not become a monk, as his soul desired, but all day long, he said the wish of Jesus, read and copied with artistic letters from the holy books and made his services. He never had anything to do with the money, so the money he would throw at the church's bench was taken care of by his sister Tryfonos.
How I liked the words of the monk Moses of Mount Athos about my grandfather Panais! "He was the levant of God, the Cypriot in shorts. The singer of God the extraordinary, the fasting, the vigilant, the vigilant, the ascetic of the city, the ambitious teacher, the benevolent grandfather. ».
And he continues: "He lived for others, the church was his home and his home was a church, the Virgin Mary was his mother and the Saints his brothers, he was full of fasting, he was hungry for God, he was talking to God, .he was not talking to the ' he said everything, he talked and rested, he did not say conversations in the thunder, he experienced them, he became small and he became big, rich, lord, father with many children, the childless, a true man, a true Christian, another saint of our time ".
I would like to mention again what my classmate Elder Ephraim, abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery, wrote about his grandfather: that he went straight to God, without going through the customs, which usually interrogate people for their mistakes. This is also a sample of the parsimony he had towards God, because of his proclamation state ".
Selectively, together with all his spiritual children, I feel that we have been orphaned, but we are sure that with his parsimony towards God he will pray and beg for us and the salvation of our soul. However, I confess to you that almost every day I pray to my grandfather Panais for my family and for those I love, and it is my great consolation in the journey of life.
Let us have his wish, and let his memory be eternal. We will remember him as long as we live, and he will always hold a special place in our hearts. May we live at the time of his canonization by our Church!
Let us have his blessing!