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St. Savvas the New is the patron saint of the Greek Island of Kalymnos, where he lived during the last twenty years of his life as the priest and spiritual father of the nuns of the Convent of All Saints. He was a great ascetic, confessor, iconographer and miracle-worker. He is one of the recently recognized saints in the Orthodox Church.
Saint Savvas was born in 1862 in Eastern Thrace and was baptized with the name of Vasilios. From a young age he had a calling for the holy monastic life and so he left for Mount Athos as a teen where he entered St. Anne's Skete. Along with the usual monastic duties, he learned iconography and Byzantine music.
After a few years, he traveled to Jerusalem for a pilgrimage to the holy sites, and there he entered the monastery of St. George Hozevitou. After a period of being a novice, he was tonsured a monk and given the name of Savvas.
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