Metropolitan Paul of Sisanion and Siatista
Elder Iakovos was a man of God, literally a man who belonged to God, and also a man who had God.
Every day was filled with prayers, services, holy water blessings, akathists to St. John, and spiritual conversations. The pilgrims were hospitably received by local Christians in every settlement along the way.
Fr. Iakovos’ life was full of such cases, which for him were simple in the sense of trust and prayer to God, through which miracles happened. It would require many books to describe these interventions and miracles.
Elder Arsenie, who reposed in 1989, was one of the great Romanian spiritual fathers of Communist times, and is revered today as a saint.
Archpriest Andrei Romashko
Such an act—sacrificing oneself for the sake of not participating in fratricidal strife—was incomprehensible to the newly baptized Rus, making the Christian feat of Boris and Gleb even more grand and astonishing.