Elder Pastitsios
[3] The page criticised, among others, the exploitation of Paisios by the press and by Orthodox websites that propagate the alleged prophecies and teachings of the charismatic Elder (according to his followers he had predicted the fall of the Soviet Union and the recent Greek crisis).The story was based on several existing accounts that were already circulating online and involved the miraculous recovery of a teenager who supposedly woke from a coma after his mother placed a talisman with dirt from Elder Paisios’ grave under his pillow.The news of the arrest created a worldwide interest in the case with the Twitter hashtag #FreeGeronPastitsios becoming a global trending topic and a relevant petition by the Humanist Union of Greece has received over 10,000 signatures so far on Change.org.[25] The parliamentary spokesman of SYRIZA and MP Dimitrios Papadimoulis stated that he would appear as a defense witness in the trial of the arrestee and even the metropolitan bishop of Thessaloniki, Anthimos said on a radio show that he did "not agree with the prosecution, better to leave him alone.[33] The idea of creating fictional characters based on Paisios quickly became a brief internet meme featured in mainstream media and even in T-shirts, occasionally as a reaction to the arrest, and support to the page creator.