Vaios Prantzos (1946-2025): With Flourishing Missionary Virtues
On January 10, 2025, the day came announcing the passing of our beloved brother in Christ, Vaios Prantzos. Now, with tearful emotion, the mind begins to slowly turn back the pages of yesteryear’s earthly life into a magnificent tableau of missionary work, painted with the flourishing Christian and social virtues of his soul.
My brother, with your living excellence in the missionary spirit, you were such a pure explorer but also a rushing waterfall of loving care towards spiritual and material aid to suffering peoples, especially in Africa. Your heart, clothed with Christ’s love, traveled to distant places… Madagascar, Kenya, Congo, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Cuba. I still recall with pain your malaria infection in Kinshasa, Congo. Those were moments just before death nearly took you, a martyrdom imprisoned in silence just for you.
During your life’s journey, you were an outstanding administrator of the Orthodox Missionary Fraternity and its president. You were honored by His Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa Theodore II with the title of Archon Orphanotroph and the Cross of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark. May you have a blessed heavenly journey, my brother.
Nostis Psarras
