The following are extracts of stories about Elder Porphyrios giving advice on the topic of marriage - about if to get married or be celibate, how to fix a broken marriage, about how to pick the right partner, and i think a few other things. I present them here merely as a GUIDE of how someone could be successful in marriage or celibacy. These stories are about specific scenarios pertaining to a specific person, and it's unwise to wholly, absolutely apply it to yourself.
Category: marriage
St John as a patron of marriage
A man relates: First I shall tell something about myself, although it is difficult and unpleasant for me to do so. But I fear being ashamed of God and hiding God's miracle, for Christ said, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall I also be ashamed." All my life, women of ill repute inspired me with disgust, aversion, and a feeling of pity. Dissolute women of society also did not attract me, and I fled from them and dreamt of an honorable marriage with a well-born lady and of our faithfulness to each other. For this reason, in my early years I asked the Lord in my prayers to grant me for a wife the most beautiful of all maidens, who would be the best of wives and mothers.
The heavenly glory of enduring abuse
I will tell you a true story from the late 1980s. It shows how the enduring of pains and trials gets us to heaven and earns us crowns and glory: A pious married lady who lived in one of the Cairo suburbs had two children, a boy and a girl, aged four and seven respectively. She loved God; so she used to pray, go to church, confess and take Communion. However, her husband was away from God. He was bad tempered and cruel.
The Art of Orthodoxy 