Metropolitan Amfilohije Radovich:
I first met the great elder Paisius of Mount Athos in 1966, when I was still a layman. And I spent a certain period, almost ten months, already as a hieromonk, near his cell.
The very first time I went there, I stayed for a week. I was going through a very difficult period in my life then. I had just arrived from Western Europe, overwhelmed by its Western rationalism and everything else related to it.
Elder Paisius gave me strong and deep support.
First of all, he listened very carefully to everything I told him. and I noticed that he listened not only with a lot of attention, but also with attention in prayer, which is extremely important.
I told him: “Elder, we intellectuals, we subject everything to interrogation and sometimes we come to ask the question “does God exist?”
He left an extremely strong impression on me as he set himself up streight. He literally told me this:
“I can’t understand that there are people in the world who can doubt the existence of God”.
I saw then the real pain on his face, the pain you can see on the face of a mother who is suffering because of her child who is in danger of collapsing. With such pain and so much sadness, he wondered if it was possible for there to be people who did not believe in God. I also saw that behind his doubts lied a real experience, a true encounter with the face of God.
That unforgettable year, which I spent next to him and on the blessed Holy Mount Athos, the nursery of saints, we served the Divine Liturgy. I served, and the old man sang. But how he sang! Like a wounded deer before the face of God. At least that’s how I experienced it.
After the service, the elder prepared a dish: rice, tomato, which he had in his garden, and bread, which he dried himself. He filled my plate, and he poured himself just a little bit. I rebelled, saying that it was not fair: that he ate as an ascetic, and I as a gourmand.
Then he said to me: “Are you a monk? Then, be obedient. Why are you such a disobedient Montenegrin? Here, my Bayum is more obedient than you.”
I asked him in surprise who Bayum was, because I knew that there was not a single person there. Then he showed me a rose bush, which he planted there. He went there, stood in front of the bush and said:
“Come, Bayum, show this distrustful Amfilohije what true obedience is.
As the ground around the bush was freshly dug and soft, it began to rise and suddenly a frog came out. I tell you what I saw with my own eyes. Then he said to the frog:
“Now return, Bayum, to your place, and in the evening go to pray.
I was surprised and asked him how Bayum was praying. He explained to me that the frog goes in front of a large wooden cross in the evening, which was there, to “sing psalms”. It was strange to me and I said to myself: “Is the elder joking with me? What kind of frog “psalm singing” is he talking about? “
On the same day, as soon as the sun set, I saw a frog in front of the cross croaking: “Krekeke, krekeke”.
I was strongly impressed by the old man’s direct connection with animals, just the kind we find in holy people.
