Elder Ananias Koustinis
“It began in 1992! It began! Byzantium fell because of the sins of the Byzantines. They stopped loving Christ and loving their fellow man. There it is! The two commandments of the New Testament: “You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.” They turned to money, discord, indulgence; they were humbled, even sought help from the Pope, Ferrara, Florence, received shame from there too, and in the end, “it was God’s will for the City to become Turkish.”
The Fall was inevitable! We received our penance. The Jews received theirs for seventy years in Babylonian captivity. But we, as the new Israel of grace, will be chastised seventy times seven. Because they knew little and he who knows little is chastised little. He who knows much will be beaten much. So Christ gave us a penance: seventy-seven times seven. Multiply it, it comes to 539. Father Paisios says this. I’m not saying anything of my own. And if we add 539 years to 1453, do you know what we get? 1992.
What happened in ’92? The war in the Balkans began. That’s what Father Paisios says too. In order to reclaim the City, the City of our dreams, in every sense, the matter will begin in the Balkans.
The Europeans will try to support the Muslims of the Balkans: Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, and others. And now the Papists, Latin Christians, and Protestant Christians: Americans, British, Germans, etc. all support the Turks! Why? It’s the same taste. And the Roman Catholics and Protestants are even worse than the Turks.
That’s why God preferred, according to Father Kosmas and undeniable history, to give the penance to the Greeks through the Turks. Through the Turks! That’s why, in the years just before the Fall of Constantinople, they used to say: “Better to see a Turkish turban in the City than the tiara”, the official crown “of the Pope. No!” And Father Kosmas says: “Fortunately, God cast us to the Turks…” He cast us! He brought those poor souls from over there and placed them here… Not that they’re blameless.
They will pay too. Because God is not unjust. “…And He did not cast us to the Pope! Because the Turks want silver.” Silver means money, the coins that are white in color. “Give the Turk silver and take his soul.” Father Kosmas! “And what about the others? They take our money and our souls! Our faith! Our faith!”
So the evil will begin from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Father Kosmas said it too. It has begun! It has begun! The Franks, the Pope, and the Jews took from Serbia, let’s not forget the Jews, because they crucified Christ… The Jews and the Pope! Pontius Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas!
They took Kosovo. What is Kosovo? The holy of holies of the Serbs. Let’s not forget the famed battle of Kosovo in 1387. All the Byzantine monuments… Byzantine monuments! The Serbs are ours. The Serbs are ours! Let’s not fool ourselves and they gave it to the Muslims, the Albanians, and they’re doing everything.
Well then, it will begin from there. The Turks will give the Russians a pretext, and I fear it will be the six nautical miles and the oil of the Aegean. Then Russia will strike Turkey directly! Entirely. Within a week, it will be over. Do you understand what I’m saying? In one week, Turkey will be finished. Because they caused so much destruction, so many rivers of blood were shed by the Turks upon Christians, especially Orthodox Greeks.
Let’s not forget anything. We must forgive but not forget. They will pay for everything! Saint Andrew the Fool-for-Christ speaks of the war to come, the destruction of Islam by the Russians, and then the protectors of Islam, the West, will intervene: NATO, Americans, the Pope, Europe, and whoever else. And they will strike the Russians. That is where the great war will take place, as Father Kosmas says. And so much blood will be shed, that a three-year-old calf could float in it. And all the lawlessness… Because the greatest enemies of Byzantium, as I’ve told you, are Islam and even more so the Papists. Such hatred! And always…”
From the book Reasons for the Fall of Constantinople, Archimandrite Ananias Koustinis, vol. II, Akti Publications, Nicosia (2016), pp. 60, 63–67.
The English translation of this text was prepared and published by The Holy Wisdom YoutTube Channel on October 18, 2025.