The ‘tempered ascetic’ and clairvoyant elder featured in The North American Thebaid
I kept hearing Blessed Elder Dimitri’s name during my pilgrimage to monasteries on the West Coast, and was able to visit for an afternoon at the small women’s skete, Our Lady of Kazan, in Santa Rosa, California, which was founded by the Elder, and where he reposed on June 26, 1992. As we were finishing the design and layout of the West Coast section of the Thebaid Book, I discussed with my editor my desire to include a two-page spread on Blessed Elder Dimitri. Abbot Tryphon, one of the Elder’s spiritual children, kindly provided a personal reflection on Archimandrite Dimitri, which is featured in the book.
From a major article on Elder Dimitri * :
According to one of his novices, the Elder behaved as though he were a stranger on earth and an “eternal pilgrim,” ever striving “for the Heavenly Jerusalem.” His favorite expression for the spiritual life and for achieving anything was: “Little by little, step by step.”
His extensive impact on Orthodoxy in California is recounted in this excerpt from the same article:
Archimandrite Dimitry managed to raise a whole galaxy of monks in the U.S. He is remembered as a spiritual father by such well-known American Church figures as Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) and the popular preacher Abbot Tryphon (Parsons) of the All-Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island, founded by Archimandrite Dimitry in 1986. Bishop Gerasim (Eliel) also talks about meeting him in 1981. He recalls that he witnessed the “gift of tears” in the Elder’s Jesus Prayer. His name has been on the Orthodox Church in America’s list of candidates for canonization for many years now. However, investigative files on the future archimandrite could not be found in Russian archives. Grateful venerators of Archimandrite Dimitry have prepared an icon of him, being convinced of the Elder’s holiness because of the many testimonies of his clairvoyance and spiritual help. In Russia, this ascetic is practically unknown, though his memory has been preserved in Valaam. And in 1997, there was an article in the journal of the Moscow Patriarchate about the Russian skete in Santa Rose that talked about Archimandrite Dimitry.
Some of the Elder’s spiritual children and novices dispersed to various jurisdictions after his repose, but they’re all united by love for this man, who testified with his life to the truth of Orthodox and the height of the monastic calling.
I was deeply moved by all my encounters with monks and nuns who were Elder Dimitri’s spiritual children, and especially by my visit at Our Lady of Kazan Skete during the Summer of 2018. My hope and prayer is that by including the Blessed Elder in the Thebaid book, that we may have helped spread the awareness of and veneration for this unique and pivotal righteous struggler, who spanned the 20th century, from Holy Russia, tonsured at Old Valaam, as a confessor under the Bolshevik atheists, then on to Western Europe, and finally to California, where he contributed greatly to the current flourishing of Orthodox parishes and monasticism, and to generations of the faithful. May we have his blessing!
NOTE: * The extensive article from which these excerpts are taken was translated into English by Jesse Dominick and published in two parts by OrthoChristian.com in 2024 (links below), and was originally prepared on the basis of a report at a conference dedicated to the centenary of the foundation of the Solovki gulag.
LIFE AFTER ESCAPE: The Valaam Monk and American Missionary Archimandrite Dimitry (Egorov) – Part 1
The North American Thebaid 