This
excerpt was taken from the newly-circulated book about Crazy John, a modern-day
”Fool for Christ”
"Foolishness
for Christ" was always appreciated as one of the most moving chapters in
the voluminous Book of Saints of our Orthodox Church. One more pebble that was
added to this chapter is the history that a humble levite of the Gospel who
lives in the blessed mountains of Agrafa in Northern Greece
narrated to us.
His
narration pertained to a contemporary "fool for Christ", who lived in
one of the many faceless, inaccessible and remote neighborhoods of Athens.
Crazy
John - who is the central character of his narration - lived in a tiny, humble apartment
that he had inherited from his mother; one of 20 apartments that comprised the
condominium building. He worked at the neighborhood bakery and began work
at daybreak. From that bakery where he worked, he would customarily fill two
bags with loaves of bread and bread rolls every day, and would rush to
distribute them to the elderly men, women and students in his neighborhood.
«Here
you are - I thought I might give you some freshly-baked bread, a gift from
mister Apostoly the baker, so that you will commemorate him in your
prayers" he would say.
The
truth was that Crazy John would use up a large part of his wages to provide
bread to the poor of his neighborhood. He would tell mister Apostoly that
he was only helping out some sick friends, and that he was being paid for his
trouble...
But how did he know who the poor in his neighborhood were?
Well,
he made it a habit to indiscriminately ring the doorbells, not only in his own
condominium, but also in neighboring apartment buildings. He would introduce
himself to everyone and would ask them if they needed anything that he could
help them with:
