Elder Abraham the Athonite
You will read the weighty and significant words of the well‑known Athonite Elder, Father Abraham, monk, well-known scholarly author, who spoke by phone on Alithia FM on December 14, 2015. For this purpose he left Mount Athos and arrived in Thessaloniki.
Topic: the prophecies and predictions of Holy Elders for what will follow.
“The developments according to the prophecies. Lately, we have been hearing from various sources, mainly the internet, some geopolitical analyses and programs of secular forces for rearrangements and differentiations of states, border changes that will be imposed through various wars that are already raging in various parts of the world, which are instigated or even carried out by great powers, with the goal of global domination. There is even a modern term, globalization, that is used. These forces, operated by Satan, of a materialistic and atheistic ideology, think that the planet Earth can become their property. For this reason they use military weapons against those who also claim it, not recognizing the right of all human creatures to dwell and live freely in it. Their minds are so darkened by the devil that they are unable to recognize that our planet is a creation of the Triune God and that He is sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and the Lord of history.
Everyone is talking, making plans, analyzing the plans of the so‑called “powerful.” politicians and journalists suffer and confuse the people with their nonsense. But the true God of the Orthodox, the one who has absolute authority over earth and heaven, who watches the developments of human actions with an extremely discreet silence, respecting the freedom and self-determination of man, foreseeing the enormous apostasy of our days from His commandments and law, wanting to prepare the faithful Orthodox Christians for the coming developments, warned us through the prophets. Along with secular people today we also meet people of the Church, lukewarm in faith, who think with a secular mind and are consumed with secular analyses, losing too the hope of the life that the God-Man offers to the world. They lose the joy and love that the conscious Christian tastes. The Church of Christ on earth is the center of true spiritual and heavenly life, a place of holiness, justice, wisdom, peace, divine power, and real freedom. The Church is a God‑established organism and has as its head the very God‑Man Himself, who nourishes the human members of His Body, us, the faithful, with His Body and His Blood through the Mysteries. The high priests, priests, and deacons who have received these three degrees of the priesthood are ministers of the Mysteries of the Church. However, as human beings, having the freedom of will to change their lifestyle, it is possible for them to fall into heresy, as we have today the pan‑heresy of ecumenism.
For this reason the faithful must examine the spiritual condition of the men of the cloth, if they are Orthodox, so that they may be able to entrust their soul to a spiritual father. In the persons of the apostles, the martyrs, the holy hierarchs, the venerable ones, and all the saints, we have the examples of living faith, warm love and submission to the will of God, who is philanthropic. But we also have the evidence that, if we want to, we too can please God, save ourselves, and draw other souls to Him. We Orthodox Christians have a duty toward the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, of which we are members, which is being fought today by the God‑opposing powers, to fight with self‑sacrifice in order to preserve our precious treasure, but also to give the testimony of true faith to the world and, especially in these critical times. Let us now see what the prophets tell us very briefly. The unfolding of world events, as they are mentioned in the prophetic texts, is indeed dramatic, shocking. The human mind can hardly accept it. And even the simple study of these events undoubtedly troubles every well‑intentioned person and puts him before a dilemma. To accept the prophetic texts as God‑inspired, therefore true, or to reject them as imaginary, wishful thinking of the generation written in different, perhaps even difficult, periods. I will suggest to you in this matter of belief in the prophecies the recommendation of the fathers. If you find it hard to believe them, do not reject them until they come true, if they are true.
Although today’s events seem rather to be leading toward them. “Agar momentarily great.” That is, when Turkey becomes sufficiently powerful, a superpower, within quotation marks, of the East, it will attack Greece and hit 1 or 2 islands for a very short time. Saint Kosmas of Aetolia says that the Turks will reach as far as the 6 Miles (Hexamilia). Saint Paisios the Athonite tells us about the 6 miles of the continental shelf. Greece is retreating, collapsing. The blond race, that is, Russia, seizes the opportunity and occupies Constantinople and the Dardanelles Straits. The Turkish resistance is crushed, and the Russian army occupies the Turkish territories one after another. In Constantinople, 3 forerunners, that is, governors, are established, who take over the administration and control of the Turkish territories that have been occupied. When the Russian army invades Turkey, the Turkish army will stop its stay inside the Greek territory, fold and return to its homeland to defend it from the Russians and their allies. The Western Allied Powers, after recovering from their surprise and shock and anger at the Russian invasion of Turkey, will rush to claim and defend the great strategic points in Turkey. But they will be defeated by the eastern coalition. And Russia with its allies will continue its triumphant advance into Turkish territory. A period of 5 to 6 months will pass, during which the Western allied forces will have completed their war preparations for a counterattack. Four expeditionary corps will be sent to Turkey at 4 different strategic points.
In Ephesus, Pergamon, Melaya, and Bithynia. Besides, they will land from the Adriatic Sea into Northern Epirus or somewhere else in Albania. But as Saint Kosmas says, they will not make it in time. That is, the war in Constantinople will already be over. Other allied forces will descend from the north of Constantinople and will attack the City itself. A total of 18 nations will clash within Constantinople. A terrible war, the likes of which the world has never seen before, will break out on land, in the air, and at sea. The fury of this terrible war, its savagery, its violence, will be unique in history. This is emphasized and underlined by all the prophecies from the depths of the ages. From the prophecy of Saint Methodios of Patara, in the year 311 A.D., up to Saint Kosmas of Aetolia in 1779 A.D., this war will last 3 days and 3 nights. The dead bodies of the soldiers will form mountains that will prevent the warring armies from advancing, and then their war machines will stop, for they will be unable to move forward because of the mountains of corpses, the lakes of blood, and the soldiers’ cries of anguish. We, fellow Greeks, will not take part in this war. In this terrible war, all sinners will be killed, according to the prophecy of Saint Methodius. And Leo the Wise adds that all people, believers and unbelievers alike, will go through terrible tribulations and will suffer much during this war, for the 7 plagues and the 2 harvests of the Book of Revelation will fall upon the world.
Because of these terrible events, the faithful ones will pour out all their repentance and sorrow, and they will beg God unceasingly to have pity on them and be merciful to them, so that the world’s sufferings may cease and peace may be restored. God listens the prayers of His faithful children and sends an angel to the earth in the form of a man, in order to help the resurrected, virtuous, and pious John to implement the decisions and wills of God for the solution of the eastern issue and for the salvation of the world in Christ. The pious John is imposed by God as the king of the whole world. After this takes place with supernatural signs and in a miraculous way, as described to us by the prophecies of Leo the Wise and Saint Methodius, the Holy King, as Saint Tarasios calls him, will immediately take active action for the pacification of the entire world and for its Christianization. For 3 years he will labor this Holy, salutary and salvific work, during which he will have as his counselors and helpers, 2 angels in the form of men. The Holy King will come to all nations, preaching the Gospel of Christ, the truths of the Orthodox faith, holding in his hands the Cross and the Gospel, and endowed with great authority and power to impose the will of God. Those people who will not accept this preaching of repentance and salvation, and they will thus resist the will of God, they will be mercilessly crushed. Whoever does not listen to this preaching shall perish.
God will send carnivorous vultures to devour the human corpses. In this way, no diseases will arise that could endanger even the faithful ones. He will impose peace on the whole world. More specifically, Saint Andrew the Fool‑for‑Christ says that the Holy King will stretch forth his right hand over the sea, and he will tame the Blond races. Blond races may be the Anglo‑Americans, the Russians, who will not look favorably upon the new state of affairs that the Holy King will impose. For this reason, the Holy King will turn toward the sea near Constantinople, where his war fleets will be, and after making the sign of the Cross with his right hand, all the fleets with their crews will be destroyed in the blink of an eye with divine power. After this punishment, the blond races will come to their senses and submit to the Holy King, thus accepting the preaching of repentance and submitting themselves to the will of Almighty God. After that, according to Leo the Wise, the Holy King will turn to the purification of the Church of Christ, in order to expel all unworthy priests, high priests, and so forth, and restore the pious and virtuous clergy who have pleased God with their good works, living in accordance with the Holy tradition. Such will be the Holy King’s righteous indignation against the impious clergy that he himself, like a another Elijah, crush them with his own hands and will replace them all with other pious and virtuous ones, whom he will ordain at the suggestion of the Holy Spirit.
After all this is done, Saint Methodius tells us, the Holy King will bring peace to the western nations, that is, the states of Europe. Peace will be made with the fall of Papism, Protestantism, Freemasonry, Spiritualism, Pantheism and all atheistic systems, elimination of the miasma of millenarianism and all pagan religions and all those who escaped the destruction of the terrible war and returned to the true faith of the God-man Christ. Thus, in all of Europe there will be one Church, one faith, one shepherd, one patriarch. In Asia, the new reality, as well as peace, did not manage to be imposed, nor was impiety and unbelief removed from these countries. The forerunners were not able to achieve this because of the huge population that Asia has. But when the Holy King will come and find all these Muslim populations and pagans not to have completely surrendered, but stubbornly persisting in the delusion of Muhammad and in demonic doctrines, he will fight them fiercely and crush all those who do not want to believe in the God-man Christ. St. Andrew very characteristically describes the destruction of the Ottomans with the following. And after this, he will turn his face toward the East and will humiliate the sons of Hagar (Arabs and Muslims). For the Lord will be angry with them because of their blasphemy, which is like the gall of Sodom and the bitterness of Gomorrah. And because of them, after he has struck them (or after he has defeated them), he will raise up against them the King of the Romans, that is, of the Greeks.
He will destroy them and their children with fire, and they themselves, having been delivered into his hands, will be led to complete conflagration (annihilation). In fewer words, and saying nearly the same things, Saint Methodius expresses it as well. And after this, he will pursue the Ishmaelites with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (that is, with terrible power and might), and in the end he will completely destroy them. Only those of the Turks who will be baptized will be saved, which will be about one third. After Asia, the turn comes for ancient Illyria. It is today’s Yugoslavia and Albania. To accept the message of salvation, change and return to a true Christian life. After that, the Holy King will campaign against Egypt, which will suffer enormous damages, disasters, according to Leo the Wise. It will become very desolate because of the great slaughter. After this, Egypt will offer her complete submission. The same will happen with Ethiopia. As regards the Jews, Saint Andrew says only this. And there will be great zeal, and he will persecute the Jews.From this it appears that with particular zeal the Holy King will turn to the return of the Jews to Christ and will mercilessly crush every Jew who will resist his preaching and will again prefer unbelief, denial, rather than believing in the gospel of Christ. They will be crushed and will disappear from the face of the earth. And we finally come to the greatest work of the Holy King. We mention it immediately.
And Gog and Magog, and many nations with them, which are innumerable as the sand of the sea, shall rise up (attack); and great fear shall come upon the whole world. Then the King will cry out before the Lord God, and fire will come down from heaven and consume them (annihilate them). And then great peace will prevail throughout the whole world. These numerous nations, which will be like the sand of the sea, are the ones he talks about in the Book of Revelation, in chapter 16, where it says: “And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up.” So that the way may be prepared for the kings who come from the East (where the sun rises), namely the Chinese, the Indians, the Tatars, the Mongols, the Pakistanis, the Vietnamese, the Tibetans, the Afghans, the Persians, the Kalmyks and the rest. All these peoples will march against the Holy King, being motivated by the lord of darkness, Satan. This fact is admittedly very terrible and the situation very difficult. Millions will be the army of all these nations that will campaign against the Saint King, and if he uses the usual means, he will not be able to quickly destroy such a numerous army. Therefore he will pray fervently to the Lord, although he does nothing without prayer and outside the instructions of the 2 angels, so that he can quickly destroy this whole army. And the Lord hears his prayer and sends down divine fire against them, which will wipe them out from the face of the earth, since in this way He will strengthen the true faith in the Gospel of Christ.
He will return to Constantinople with great glory, greater than any king or emperor before him, and he will reign with an iron fist, with perfect justice, and with great love for the people, in the name of Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. Almost all prophecies emphasize with the most vivid colors, the peaceful and blessed era that will prevail throughout the earth when the Holy King returns to Constantinople from his 3 year successful apostolic action. Saint Methodius writes about this. “Upon their return, the treasures of the earth will be opened and everyone will become rich, and no one among them will be poor, and the earth will yield its fruits a hundredfold”. The prophecy addressed to King Manuel states: “Then, when the king enters The City, the treasures of the earth will be opened, and wherever there is gold or silver, it will be revealed. And the multitude of this treasure will be so great that they will throw a part of it down to the ground because it will no longer be useful (due to the overabundance); joy and gladness will prevail throughout the world, and there will be no one who does wrong or is wronged.” When the King comes to The City, the treasures of the earth will be revealed, and wherever there is gold or silver, they will be revealed. So great will be the multitude of the treasure that they will throw part of it on the ground, because it will be useless to them. Joy and gladness will be throughout the whole world, so that no one will wrong another, and there will be no one wronged.
And the prophet Amos prophesies: “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed, meaning that time will be shortened, and the mountains will drip with new wine, and all the hills will overflow with goodness.” Saint Kosmas of Aetolia says characteristically: “Lucky whoever lives after the general war; he will eat with a silver spoon, and the wolf will live together with the lamb.” And Saint Andrew adds: “For people will become very rich and, in a deep peace, they will eat and drink.” There will be no court (judicial struggle/dispute) in those days, nor will the wronged one be afraid (or hide). For the whole earth will open wide before him, and all the gold that is hidden in any place, by the nod of God, will be revealed to that King. And he will distribute (scatter) all the goods to those who need them. And his princes (the magnates) will become rich like kings, and the poor (the needy) will become like princes. The Holy King will use these treasures that the earth will give for the renovation the sacred temples that were destroyed by the fury of the war, and for the construction of the new temples. Constantinople will be renovated and rebuilt from the beginning, more beautiful and with greater splendor, so that it becomes a house of the glory of God and ceases at last to be a place of blasphemy and impiety.
It will once again become a global spiritual center. And according to Leo the Wise: “And again your children will come around (gather), in straight lines, as if moving from the periphery of a circle towards its center.” In other words, the Christians at that time will begin to gather in Constantinople like children going to find their lost mother. From all places, young and old will come to Constantinople to see and venerate the wondrous and chosen one of the Lord King, Saint John III Dukε Vatatzιs, whose relic lies unworn in an underground chamber under Hagia Sophia. His sword is ready to come forth from its sheath. And everyone who sees him will receive what is most desired for himself, that is, the solution to his questions, as the wise Leo testifies. Of course, our prophecy mentions only John, but we conclude, since his holy relic is incorruptible, and since his sword is said to come forth, that he will be this Holy King. We make an assumption, but I think it is also the reality. Wars are now abolished, as Saint Methodius testifies. And the weapons of war shall become as plows and sickles. Likewise, Saint Andrew says that, he, because there will be no more war, will beat their swords into sickles and their spears into agricultural tools, with which they will cultivate the land. Moreover, during that blessed and blissful age, which is not far off, the courts will cease to function, because there will no fair cases to judge.
And there will be no more need for courts, neither will there be one who wrongs nor one who is wronged. For the Holy King will make the sons of men to be disciplined through fear, and those of the magnates (the powerful/rulers) who do wrong, he will humiliate and deliver them to death. Indecent spectacles and sinful entertainments and activities of life in general will be abolished. Everything will exude the fragrance of piety and holiness. Finally, each one according to his worth will get the place he deserves. “He will render to each according to his merit (will bestow justice),” says Saint Methodius. So when sinners are eliminated from the earth, there will be “one flock, one shepherd” The reign of the Holy King will last 35 years. Truly blessed will be the one who will live and be worthy to see the great and wonderful works which, with the grace and power of the almighty and all-good God, the Holy King will manage to do. Truly blessed will be those who are found worthy to see the glory and blessing of God that will shine forth through the reign and holiness of the pious and great saint of our Orthodox Church, John III the Merciful, Duke Vatatzis, Emperor of Nicaea from 1222 to 1254. Let us prepare ourselves, brothers, to welcome him, for from things appear, the events that will bring him in the spotlight are now evident. Let us prepare ourselves with repentance and prayer to welcome him. Good fight and patience for the difficult time we have left.
I will also read to you a few poems, brothers, by Saint John the Chozebite, who lived from 1913 to 1960. In those days the earth will no longer bear fruit, and work will be scarce, for many will believe in Satan as the companion of their free life. Then the world will boil like a cauldron on fire, and, driven by blind rage, and there will be no peace in him. The great and fearsome wars will follow one another closely, like the links of a chain; but the most terrible of all will be that of the 7 nations in Byzantium. Then dreadful dragons of metal will be constructed, spreading destruction from the mouth and smoke filled with deadly poison. Only 1/3 of all the world will spared alive, while the rest will meet their end by death in the final war. An angel will come from heaven, shouting in a loud voice to stop the massacre of the forces in Constantinople. There the angels will give the throne of Byzantium to a Holy Man, and all will obey him in peace, having no war on earth. Then Orthodoxy will radiate throughout the world, evil will disappear and great love will exist. Thank God for everything, my dear fellow Greeks. I’ve tired you out, but I think the texts, and especially this last one, are very interesting despite the strangeness of what is mentioned. But as I mentioned at the beginning, you may be surprised by all these things that are mentioned, yet let us wait, and above all let us prepare ourselves.”
Special thanks to Elder Abraham the Athonite for allowing The Holy Wisdom to present this remarkable analysis, and special thanks to Petros Stathakopoulos, owner and administrator of Kapa News, for his invaluable support and contribution.
These prophecies come from the book ‘The Prophets Reveal to Us’, published in 2013 by Poimenikos Stavros Press on Holy Mount Athos.
Original video was published on December 16, 2015, this analysis is based on Elder Abraham the Athonite's discussion on Alithia FM regarding Orthodox prophecies and future world developments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UzFWpZyO3E&list=PLxfbjNWqCTneS-YINMujXnjdggcGcvggB&index=62
The prophecies and the video translation were prepared by The Holy Wisdom and uploaded to the YouTube channel on June 4, 2026.