Elder Paisios tells of an Athonite monk who struggled with alcohol addiction all his life

There was a monk on Athos who drank constantly, and it caused conflicts with pilgrims. After his death, one of the faithful told Elder Paisios that he was glad of the death of the drinking novice. Father Paisios replied that he had learned of the venerable man's death on seeing the angels who had come for his soul. "No, Father, you surely have not understood; we are speaking of the monk who got drunk every day." Then Elder Paisios explained: "This man was born in Asia Minor, where the Turks were raging. And his parents, to save their son from being carried off by the Turks, took him with them to the harvest, and so that the infant should not cry, they added raki to his milk, and he would fall asleep. That is how his dependence on alcohol began in early childhood." Having come to the elder, the man spoke of his affliction, and the elder told him to pray and make prostrations every night, asking the Mother of God to help him overcome his alcoholism, and to reduce his customary daily portion of alcohol by one glass. After a year of penance, the 20 glasses he drank each day had become 19. He prayed for years and in the end came to drink 2 or 3 glasses a day, yet was still made drunk by them. All this time people saw in him only a drunkard of a monk and condemned him, while the Lord saw a fighter who had struggled all his life against a ruinous passion.