Meletios of Lardos was a monastic saint of the island of Rhodes who, according to tradition, restored the ruined monastery of Panagia Ypseni after a vision of the Mother of God, and served there as its abbot. Baptized Emmanuel, he was born in the village of Lardos on Rhodes during the period of Ottoman rule, in the late eighteenth century. He is commemorated on February 12.
The accounts of his life relate that, while still a layman, he tended his father's flocks and was drawn to deserted places for prayer, imitating the ascetic struggles of the saints he had read about. Withdrawing to a cave at the dilapidated monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos Ypseni, he is said to have witnessed a pillar of light descending over an ancient tree and to have found beneath it an old icon of the Theotokos. By tradition the Mother of God appeared to him and directed him to rebuild the monastery; he received the monastic schema, was renamed Meletios, was ordained to the priesthood, and became abbot of the restored community.
As abbot he served as a spiritual father to the surrounding region, hearing confessions, traveling among the villages to celebrate the Liturgy, and strengthening the Orthodox faithful living under Ottoman rule. The sources attribute to him gifts of healing for body and soul and a life of strict asceticism and silence. He reposed at an advanced age and was buried by the Metropolitan of Rhodes; his relics were reported to be fragrant, a sign venerated as a testimony of his sanctity.
Long honored locally on Rhodes, Meletios was formally glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on November 27, 2013, in the same act that recognized Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia. His relics are kept at the monastery of Panagia Ypseni, which today functions as a convent.
