“For the Church, therefore, sanctity is not the personal property of any one person, no matter how “saintly” one may be in their lifetime; it has to do with one’s personal relationship with God.  God, according to His own free will, sanctifies whomever He chooses, without sanctity being dependent on anything else, other than the free will of the one being sanctified…we people do not contribute anything, except only our willingness, without which God will not act; furthermore, our labors and ascesis do not produce sanctity as a result thereof….”
(Metropolitan of Pergamon John Zizioulas in ‘Sanctity a Forgotten Vision’)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_8LpyhjRyE/T9H7Lqq7BEI/AAAAAAAABaU/qKuSacubCl0/s1600/Monastery-of-Varlam-Meteora-Greece.jpg