![](http://www.diakonima.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/averkios.jpg)
For a short time the Holy Mountain was calm . Then World War I began. The Central Powers had blockaded Greece and hunger was making itself felt on the Holy Mountain, particularly among those living in kellia and sketes. The monasteries were slightly better off because they had their dependencies. Then the committee representing the monks living in kellia elected Fathers Chrysostomos Lavriokelliotis and Averkios, provided them with money and official papers stamped by the police and sent them to Athens to buy wheat for the Holy Mountain. The blockade was tight and wheat was very hard to come by. The Powers allowed only one steam-boat to discharge its cargo for the whole of Greece. Through the Gounaris government, the monks weren’t ...