In the early morning hours of April 17, 2026, during the radiant days of Pascha, Geronda Joseph, abbot of St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Monastery in Roscoe, New York, reposed peacefully at the monastery he had helped build.
He passed at approximately 6:30 a.m., surrounded by his spiritual children and the brotherhood, bringing to a close a life of quiet endurance and spiritual labor.
For years, the elder had suffered from cancer, bearing the illness with patience and without public attention.
His passing came on Bright Friday, the feast of the Life-Giving Spring—a moment deeply symbolic in Orthodox life, where sorrow is inseparable from the proclamation of the Resurrection.
The Announcement and Immediate Response
The news spread first through ecclesiastical channels and the faithful.
In an official communiqué, the Church spoke “with sorrow, yet with every hope in the Resurrection,” announcing the falling asleep of the elder.
AB Elpidophoros, who had visited the ailing elder repeatedly in his final days, immediately offered a memorial prayer service and spoke of his spiritual gifts—especially his ministry in confession and guidance.
What followed was not only mourning, but movement: pilgrims began traveling to the monastery, drawn by the life and presence of a spiritual father they had known personally.
The Funeral (April 20, 2026)
On April 20, 2026, the funeral of Geronda Joseph was held at the monastery katholikon, according to Church announcements.
The day unfolded in the full rhythm of Orthodox tradition:
- The Divine Liturgy was celebrated for the repose of his soul
- The funeral service followed immediately
- Clergy, monastics, and faithful gathered in great numbers
According to reports from Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America coverage and Orthodox Observer reporting, the service was led by Archbishop Elpidophoros, with numerous clergy in attendance, reflecting the elder’s influence across the Orthodox world.
Accounts emphasize both the solemnity and the distinctly Paschal character of the service—mourning carried out in the light of the Resurrection.
The Burial
Following the funeral, the body of the elder was carried in procession and laid to rest in the monastery cemetery, as prescribed.
The burial was simple, in keeping with monastic life:
- monks bearing the coffin
- continuous chanting
- The gathered faithful surrounding the grave
No separation was made between ritual and life—the monastery itself became both the place of farewell and the place of continuation.
A Life Concluded, A Legacy Continued
Geronda Joseph had served as abbot of the monastery since its founding in 1999, having come to America as part of the monastic mission established by Elder Ephraim of Arizona.
His death, after years of illness, marked not an abrupt end, but the completion of a long ascetical path—one lived in silence, guidance, and endurance.
And so, his funeral was not only a moment of loss.
It was the visible passing of a spiritual father into the memory of the Church—
remembered in prayer, in place, and in the lives he shaped.
Memory eternal.
April 22, 2026, n.stamatakis@aol.com www.helleniscope.com
DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.
This was a very grace filled funeral. It was quite cold, with temperatures just above freezing, or at least it felt that way. Yet there had to be at least 1,000 people there, mostly braving the cold and wind, prayerfully waiting outside for Geronda Joseph’s final resting. The monks had large-event tents put up outside with a large television monitor and speakers so that we could see and hear inside the church.
Beautiful tribute. Memory eternal.
Elpidoktonos has no love neither for the monasteries, monastics nor monastic life. One look at his extraordinary illicit life style in Turkey Greece and the United States is enough to drive all of us closer to satan than our God. His only interest and concern are the properties on which the monastic communities lie. I and many others are concerned as to why the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of our Father Efraim monasteries are allowing him to desecrate the memory of our Geronda. Shame on all who fall not him faka. His trap.
Elder Joseph was Father Confessor to Metropolitan Saba of the Antiochian Church. Today(4/24), the Metropolitan wrote a very beautiful and touching tribute to his spiritual father. It is posted on the website of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America.
Elder Joseph’s repose made me think that when selecting candidates for bishops, in addition to considering one of the plethora of archimandrites that populate the Phanar, why not look at the “Ephraim Monasteries” right here in America? I’ll bet there are many outstanding, spiritually developed, administratively talented monks who have their passions under control.
Orthodox Christianity, Praxis
Fr. Zechariah Lynch
July 5, 2022
Not for Cowards
When clear matters of the faith are blatantly assaulted, every sober-minded Orthodox Christian is called to stand up and make a courageous answer.
There exists a pseudo-humility. This false idea turns humility and meekness into spinelessness and cowardice, in which a person is unable to address anything at all. All such a one can do in such a state is pitifully wheeze, “Who am I to say? I’m just a sinner.”
As Christians, we’re not to judge out of our own limited person, but the Church does judge from Her eternal experience of Revelation, for She has that authority from Her Lord, Christ Jesus. We as Christians are called to uphold the doctrine, dare I say, the judgment of the Church. It’s not my – or our – judgment, it is the Universal and Apostolic Gospel’s, as St. Nikolai Velimirovich says, This understanding is not personal or exceptional, and it is not individual or novel. It is in accordance with the understanding of the saints.
Archbishop Averky, a man of holy life who was steeped in the holy Fathers, says, While struggling resolutely against the most minute manifestations of evil and sin in our own souls, let us not fear to uncover and point out evil everywhere it is to be found in modern life – not from pride and self-love, but only out of love for the truth. Our chief task in this evil time of lying shamelessness is to remain totally faithful and devoted to the genuine truth of the Gospel and to the author of our salvation, Christ, the Giver of life Who rose on the third day from the tomb, the Conqueror of hell and death.
For one striving to live according to the Truth of the Gospel, the fact that he (we all) may sometimes fall does not deprive him of the ability to speak firmly and boldly when fundamentals, basics, of the faith are purposely and forcefully assailed (from within and without). A person’s own personal struggles with sin do not bar him from upholding the clear and manifest teaching of Christ the Lord’s Church.
The blessed Archbishop continues, Zeal for God, zeal for the Truth is not “phariseeism,” just as “humility” before the enemies of God, the enemies of the Church, before diabolical Evil, is not the true and saving humility of the Publican, but just destructive self-deception, leading to the depths of hell.
The wide-path of false humility will lead only to the abyss of depravity and destruction.
Psuedo-humility causes one to be spineless and paralyzed in the application of Gospel standards; this is just what the enemy desires. As Archbishop Averky notes, this is false humility, an anti-virtue; one that mimics aspects of true virtue but is, in reality, a bearer of death.
The Fathers do not mince words about those who would actively pervert the Faith. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, Especially abhor all the assemblies of wicked heretics. That’s not very loving to heretics St Cyril! He goes on to say, Many of those who are falsely called Christians, and wrongfully addressed by the sweet name of Christ, have ere now impiously dared to banish God from His own creation. I mean the brood of heretics, those most ungodly men of evil name, pretending to be friends of Christ but utterly hating Him (Catechetical Lectures).
False humility is fear of the world. It seeks to banish God from the moral realm, His creation, by promoting claims and ideas that any right-minded Orthodox knows to be false. Under the pretense of humility, it calls on Christians to submissively lay down before the golden idols of the modern age.
The blessed Archbishop Theophan of Poltava reveals – The most horrifying of all is to fear anything more than God, for by such fear the servant of truth will betray the teaching of faith and truth!
We are nowhere instructed to humble ourselves before falsehood or evil when it seeks to distort the Truth. Rather the truly humble Christian rises up and defends the faith when he sees it being attacked. St. Cyril of Alexandria tells us in very strong words, When the faith is being harmed then away with stale and fussy reverence for parents, then let the law of affection for children and brethren be set aside, and let men of reverence prefer death to life that “they may obtain a better resurrection,” as it is written (Heb. 11:35) (2nd Letter to Nestorius).
True humility is found in a willingness to let the Faith inform and transform, even transfigure, our mortal, mutable reason into immortal, eternal, and heavenly Reason. True humility is to valiantly and courageously hold to the Revelation of Faith in spite of the machinations of men. To quote again St. Cryril of Alexandria, Hold the acceptable doctrines which we have learned from the divine scripture, the faith which we received from the Fathers.
Demonic pride seeks to “improve and update” the eternal Revelation of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Memory eternal!