Gerontissa Gavrilia: She was the close friend of Fr. Gabriel Tsafos
An interview with Abbess Filothei
There are people of enduring love and this fact puts them on a permanent basis first in the heart and then in the memory of the people they once met. We will refer to a woman with an open heart, a nun, a missionary who has shown that we are capable of love, we are loving beings. "Anyone who loves will eventually suffer, but this is preferable, because suffering broadens the heart and makes man open. So he can love indefinitely and emerge as a person without self-seeking", says Herzegovina Bishop Athanasios Yeftic.
Gerontissa Gavrilia Papayannis was a nun of love who just did not seek to be known, but her co-workers, who knew her, bear witness to Gerontissa until today and highlight her. Abbess Filothei from the holy shrine of Panagia Vrioulon gave an interview to "Orthodox Truth" about her research with the blessing of Metropolitan of Argolida Nektarios and his urge to collect data from people who lived near Gerontissa. Abbess is giving us details of a dynamic course:“We decided to do this and explore the life of this form. We have met Gerontissa through our spiritual father, Father Gabriel Tsafos, in the past, and that is why the Most Reverend Bishop Nektarios has come to us for research. Our Elder Gabriel, priest at St. Andrew's Church on Amerikis Square in Athens and Gerontissa stayed at Medias street very close to the church. So he brought her to the church and we met her there. That's how we got to know her. They both had a deep spiritual relationship and love for each other. There is a letter to Father Gabriel where Gerontissa is asking him when she dies to be buried in the area where the monastery of Our Lady of Vrioula is now built. The shocking thing, of course, was that when this letter was written, there was not even a monastery there.
Abbes Filothei talks to us about her personal encounter with Gerontissa Gavrilia when the second was ninety-one and the first nineteen.
Gerontissa Gavrilia Papagiannis was the first nun I’ve ever seen in my life. I was nineteen years old, a student of Theology and my name was Anastasia. She came to meet us at Saint Andrew’s Church on the eve of the celebration day of Saint Filothei in 1988. I marveled that she had clarity of mind and purity of face like a young child.
She answered all of our questions and gave each one of us a blessing. Soon I visited her at home and sat with her for an hour. I said to myself, "How beautiful is monasticism, if it’s like this, I love it! If that is how beautiful the church is, we will stay here". Whatever she did she did with levity and joy, giving always blessings and her face was shining with joy. Before I went to meet Gerontissa I had an accident getting off a trolley because I was in a hurry and I seriously hurt my knee. I thought that it was my mistake to hurry up and that I had a sense of pride and arrogance at that time, a mistaken feeling that I was "someone" and after realizing this failure I replied to myself: "Well, you know you hurt yourself like this because you are proud, God did it to make you better." So when I met her at her home at Medias street, I confessed to her about the event and my thoughts. Upon hearing this she stood up, opened her arms, embraced me, and said, "Well done, so good, well done, so you must do, and not say “ah what happened, what a bad day, what a sad day”. To reinforce me, she mentioned an incident in her life when once a photographer took pictures in the monastery and was immediately struck by a severe headache that she interpreted to be an information from angels she respected and loved, that she had not behaved properly. She immediately apologized and the headache passed right away. In all her life, whenever Gerontissa got sick, she used to blame herself as a sinner. She never believed that someone transmitted a disease or that someone else was to blame.
The dynamic and profound Christian life of the nun. Everybody who got to know her agrees that she was full of acceptance.
At that time I started attending Church and had a friend who was a magician, an entangled human being. I informed him that I would meet nun Gavrilia and suggested that he would come with me. He appeared to me as if he was hit by a strong current and refused to follow me. I mentioned it to Gerontissa without telling her that he was entangled with magic and then responded with ''stay far, far, far away” as if she understood immediately what it was all about. This man moved away from my life on his own. I also wanted to become a Missionary and give anything I can offer to the Church and not just take. She responded instantly with blessings and joy without second thoughts and pessimism, she was open and believed in God. I told her a lot and I felt I made her dizzy:
- I made you tired Gerontissa!
- No, how old are you?
- Nineteen.
- Me too.
I was in heaven when I left.
Later we met her with Father Gabriel in the Metochi of Saint Nektarios, at the monastery of Holy Protection (Agia Skepi) in Aegina, where she stayed for a year. She lived there in a small house. It was very simple and humble. Our elder, because of his origin from Asia Minor always liked decoration and being well-groomed. He started suggesting to her to make some changes of several things. Then Gerontissa politely interrupted him: "Father, I will do nothing. Those who come will be visiting the poor monastery." Then she went to Leros and after about two years she reposed.
In the research we have done on Gerontissa, there are reports from people of different character, age and different countries, often with other traditions who have met her. I spoke to more than sixty people and the common element, in which everyone agrees is that in this beautiful soul there was love and acceptance. You wouldn't think about what you should wear when you go visit her, how you're going to behave because she's a nun. Next to her we all felt like home, that we were having a good time and there is no reason to go somewhere else. There was no such thought as "Oh, but she's a nun." This woman had the gift to let you be who you are, that would have shocked anyone. There was someone who had nothing to do with Christ and she heard him unravel the most disgusting thing and she did not grimace to make him feel bad. She didn't exist. She became the other person. Her trait was that she made herself empty. When that man was leaving, Gerontissa wouldn't sit and think and say, "Oh, poor guy, what's going to happen now!" She knew Him who saves. She had this poor man in her prayers and knew that He would save him and not herself. She could see and help a lot of people every day in this way. Everywhere she worked as a missionary: in her cell at Medias street, or in the Himalayas.
At this point, though, I would like to emphasize that Gerontissa Gavrilia repeatedly said that she owed her love for humans to God and to the life she lived in her early childhood. She had a lot of love for people because she received a lot of love from her family. She had a strong bond with her mother, and when she left that life, she dedicated herself completely to Christ. She was always open to people by exemplifying her mother's love for others. She often referred herself as the Mission for the Church abroad, without indicating that she had done anything important.
Gerontissa Gavrilia was always simple, she could live in Indira Gandhi’s palace, and shortly afterwards in an Indian hut. She could be invited by the maharaja and right after went to a slum and assisted the children at the place where the lepers lived. Once, after she became a nun she was at the palace and Indira Gandhi introduced her to a prominent politician as a physiotherapist and Orthodox nun. Then the politician, thinking she was Catholic like Mother Teresa, asked if she comes from the Roman Catholic Church, and then the Indian Prime Minister replied "No, it’s something completely different".
Her character evolved from her experience. She communicated with people with caress, with a smile, love and prayer. This was her teaching, but actually she often taught in other ways:
When she lived at Medias street in Athens, Greece, nun Augustine, who stayed with her narrates a beautiful story: “It was Wednesday and some ladies came to visit her, they had just started gossiping and were accusing some women. Then Gerontissa got angry, got up, went to the fridge, grabbed a piece of cheese and gave it to them. They wondered why she had given them cheese on a fasting day. Her reply "If you eat so much of the flesh of others, why don’t you eat the cheese". She believed that a basic principle to making some steps in spiritual life is self-denying and self-criticism, not condemnation of others. This kept her mind focused on God and did not disrupt her prayer.
She paid special attention to prayer. She would spend some time per day and some days per week in prayer and only then she would accept people to come. We know from the notes she left that she sometimes wrote her prayer. She sometimes wrote the Six Psalms or "Lord have mercy" or "Glory to God."
In fact, as she was getting older, her writings were unstable. She loved prayer a lot. When I was a student and had first met her I asked her how I could exercise the Jesus' prayer. She enlightened me by saying: "Feel your pulse and at this rate you say: "Lord have mercy", you eat and say "Lord have mercy", you wash your face and again "Lord have mercy". Praise God. If you forget it, do not worry. Don’t hesitate to resume." A well-known psychiatrist, one of her spiritual children, told us that an important element of her character was that you wouldn't feel guilty being with her, you would feel liberated. She showed that your relationship with God would never start with guilt, but with the fact that you want this relationship with God, Christ. Say His Name with love."
She was once diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized at a clinic near St. Andrew's church. The nurses who took care of her kept shocking testimonies about her. I was informed by them how she with calmness coped with her illness and her strong faith. She kept the fasts while she was in the hospital and when her sisters told her to eat because she would fall down, she refused, "But, you know… I have no cancer in my soul, I have it in my body." She even talked to her cancer and said: "Come on, my little cancer, it’s enough… you stayed with me for a long time." When Easter day came, she was healed.
She was not afraid of death, she likened it with a fence, and the man with a flower, whose stem passes through the hole of the fence and comes out the other side that we do not see. The little rosebush blossomed on the other side of the wall, but we can't see that. But the flower has flourished. This is how she used to describe death. She had a love affair with Christ and was not afraid of death. Finally, on March 28, 1992, she reposed peacefully and the people around her felt a sweet and bitter joy. Father Nicodemus, the Archpriest in Leros, was at her funeral. The people who lifted her coffin felt it was very light. The residents of Leros told us that they felt a sense of peace, but also had a sense of her presence. Gerontissa had received permission to build a monastery in the area before leaving for the eternal life. However, she did not see it being created, and when she reposed she was buried in the church of the island. From there she could see Asia Minor and Constantinople, her hometown. Actually she had expressed her desire to be buried at the Psychiatric Clinic of Leros Island, which was not done as you can understand. Until today many people come to venerate her grave from many places.
We thank Abbess Filothei for trusting and sharing with us and our readers. We speak openly, without shame, to the reposed and to the saints too.
We need to shed light on their lives on earth, and we bow silently to their new status, coming from the other side of the fence, which was said and experienced by Gerontissa Gavrilia. We are asking her to show us in some way the rose, as it blossoms in the new place.
August 1, 2018, the day the interview was written, we were saddened to be informed that the Elder Gabriel Tsafos had reposed and went to meet his Creator, together with Gerontissa Gavrilia. As a memorial, we have collected some information that outlines the personality of an original confessor and pioneer in his approach to young people, even marginalized people. He was the founder of the Holy Monastery of Our Lady of Vrioula.
For 47 years he was a priest at Saint Andrew’s Church, Lefkosia street in Athens. This is the place where he met Abbess Filothei, who was a student of Theology and was seeking "Abba say a word”. Elder Gabriel would discharge them when she and her friends asked him : "How should we dress in order to visit Elder Gabriel? What should we wear?” Elder Gabriel replied to the young women: "We don't go to our spiritual father like we go meet a politician or any other person. To such a spiritual woman like nun Gavrilia, we go plain, as we are."
According to the Abbess, he and his spiritual daughters founded the monastery that still comforts many people. He had a strong love relationship with his mother, but also a strong spiritual heritage: Two of his uncles have been monks, both coming from Vrioula. First elder Ignatius who lived for 70 years in Mount Athos, and the second, the blessed Seraphim, who lived next to Saint Iakovos Tsalikis in the monastery of Saint David, Evia. Both his uncles inspired him through their humility, humor and love for people and their place of origin. Elder Gabriel was the soul of St. Andrew's Church at Amerikis Square. A humble priest with a huge job. He often spoke about his origin that influenced his identity. He always referred to the value of the heart in human life. He suggested that we should lean on God, and lately kept saying we should be hooked on God.
Gerontissa Gavrilia said that the love of Christ and of the angels guided her to get very closely connected with Fr. Gabriel Tsafos. When Elder reposed, father Alexandros Karyotoglou said: “I served as a chanter for 25 years at the chapel of St. Andrew, after an invitation of Father Gabriel. I met him during our university studies. A man of a rare and genuine love. Humility, humor, deep and essential Faith. After Easter I participated in the Divine Liturgy at the Monastery. We looked into each other’s eyes, he kissed me and I kissed him. At the hospital he might have recognized me, I caressed him… All said in this touch...!
Memory Eternal, my friend and co-priest father Gabriel. Your ancestors from Vrioula, Asia Minor are waiting for you and so many others ...".
translated in English by https://orthodoxgladness.blogspot.com/
- I made you tired Gerontissa!
- No, how old are you?
- Nineteen.
- Me too.
I was in heaven when I left.
Elder Filothei takes us through and then analyzes elements of the dynamic and profound Christian life of Gerontissa Gavrilia.
Later we met her with Father Gabriel in the Metochi of Saint Nektarios, at the monastery of Holy Protection (Agia Skepi) in Aegina, where she stayed for a year. She lived there in a small house. It was very simple and humble. Our elder, because of his origin from Asia Minor always liked decoration and being well-groomed. He started suggesting to her to make some changes of several things. Then Gerontissa politely interrupted him: "Father, I will do nothing. Those who come will be visiting the poor monastery." Then she went to Leros and after about two years she reposed.
In the research we have done on Gerontissa, there are reports from people of different character, age and different countries, often with other traditions who have met her. I spoke to more than sixty people and the common element, in which everyone agrees is that in this beautiful soul there was love and acceptance. You wouldn't think about what you should wear when you go visit her, how you're going to behave because she's a nun. Next to her we all felt like home, that we were having a good time and there is no reason to go somewhere else. There was no such thought as "Oh, but she's a nun." This woman had the gift to let you be who you are, that would have shocked anyone. There was someone who had nothing to do with Christ and she heard him unravel the most disgusting thing and she did not grimace to make him feel bad. She didn't exist. She became the other person. Her trait was that she made herself empty. When that man was leaving, Gerontissa wouldn't sit and think and say, "Oh, poor guy, what's going to happen now!" She knew Him who saves. She had this poor man in her prayers and knew that He would save him and not herself. She could see and help a lot of people every day in this way. Everywhere she worked as a missionary: in her cell at Medias street, or in the Himalayas.
Strong bonds
At this point, though, I would like to emphasize that Gerontissa Gavrilia repeatedly said that she owed her love for humans to God and to the life she lived in her early childhood. She had a lot of love for people because she received a lot of love from her family. She had a strong bond with her mother, and when she left that life, she dedicated herself completely to Christ. She was always open to people by exemplifying her mother's love for others. She often referred herself as the Mission for the Church abroad, without indicating that she had done anything important.
The great work of Gerontissa and her meeting with Indira Gandhi
Gerontissa Gavrilia was always simple, she could live in Indira Gandhi’s palace, and shortly afterwards in an Indian hut. She could be invited by the maharaja and right after went to a slum and assisted the children at the place where the lepers lived. Once, after she became a nun she was at the palace and Indira Gandhi introduced her to a prominent politician as a physiotherapist and Orthodox nun. Then the politician, thinking she was Catholic like Mother Teresa, asked if she comes from the Roman Catholic Church, and then the Indian Prime Minister replied "No, it’s something completely different".
Her character evolved from her experience. She communicated with people with caress, with a smile, love and prayer. This was her teaching, but actually she often taught in other ways:
She paid special attention to prayer. She would spend some time per day and some days per week in prayer and only then she would accept people to come. We know from the notes she left that she sometimes wrote her prayer. She sometimes wrote the Six Psalms or "Lord have mercy" or "Glory to God."
In fact, as she was getting older, her writings were unstable. She loved prayer a lot. When I was a student and had first met her I asked her how I could exercise the Jesus' prayer. She enlightened me by saying: "Feel your pulse and at this rate you say: "Lord have mercy", you eat and say "Lord have mercy", you wash your face and again "Lord have mercy". Praise God. If you forget it, do not worry. Don’t hesitate to resume." A well-known psychiatrist, one of her spiritual children, told us that an important element of her character was that you wouldn't feel guilty being with her, you would feel liberated. She showed that your relationship with God would never start with guilt, but with the fact that you want this relationship with God, Christ. Say His Name with love."
A revealing conversation with the nurses at the Pammakaristos clinic where she was hospitalized when she was hit by cancer.
She was once diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized at a clinic near St. Andrew's church. The nurses who took care of her kept shocking testimonies about her. I was informed by them how she with calmness coped with her illness and her strong faith. She kept the fasts while she was in the hospital and when her sisters told her to eat because she would fall down, she refused, "But, you know… I have no cancer in my soul, I have it in my body." She even talked to her cancer and said: "Come on, my little cancer, it’s enough… you stayed with me for a long time." When Easter day came, she was healed.
Fearless Soul
How was this fearless soul facing death? From the words of Abbess Filothei we realize that Gerontissa Gavrilia as a true Christian, could not accept that death was the end. Let us leave the narration of Abbess Filothei herself:
She was not afraid of death, she likened it with a fence, and the man with a flower, whose stem passes through the hole of the fence and comes out the other side that we do not see. The little rosebush blossomed on the other side of the wall, but we can't see that. But the flower has flourished. This is how she used to describe death. She had a love affair with Christ and was not afraid of death. Finally, on March 28, 1992, she reposed peacefully and the people around her felt a sweet and bitter joy. Father Nicodemus, the Archpriest in Leros, was at her funeral. The people who lifted her coffin felt it was very light. The residents of Leros told us that they felt a sense of peace, but also had a sense of her presence. Gerontissa had received permission to build a monastery in the area before leaving for the eternal life. However, she did not see it being created, and when she reposed she was buried in the church of the island. From there she could see Asia Minor and Constantinople, her hometown. Actually she had expressed her desire to be buried at the Psychiatric Clinic of Leros Island, which was not done as you can understand. Until today many people come to venerate her grave from many places.
We thank Abbess Filothei for trusting and sharing with us and our readers. We speak openly, without shame, to the reposed and to the saints too.
We need to shed light on their lives on earth, and we bow silently to their new status, coming from the other side of the fence, which was said and experienced by Gerontissa Gavrilia. We are asking her to show us in some way the rose, as it blossoms in the new place.
P.S.
"Memory Eternal, my friend and beloved father Gabriel! Your ancestors from Vrioula, Asia Minor are waiting for you."
August 1, 2018, the day the interview was written, we were saddened to be informed that the Elder Gabriel Tsafos had reposed and went to meet his Creator, together with Gerontissa Gavrilia. As a memorial, we have collected some information that outlines the personality of an original confessor and pioneer in his approach to young people, even marginalized people. He was the founder of the Holy Monastery of Our Lady of Vrioula.
For 47 years he was a priest at Saint Andrew’s Church, Lefkosia street in Athens. This is the place where he met Abbess Filothei, who was a student of Theology and was seeking "Abba say a word”. Elder Gabriel would discharge them when she and her friends asked him : "How should we dress in order to visit Elder Gabriel? What should we wear?” Elder Gabriel replied to the young women: "We don't go to our spiritual father like we go meet a politician or any other person. To such a spiritual woman like nun Gavrilia, we go plain, as we are."
According to the Abbess, he and his spiritual daughters founded the monastery that still comforts many people. He had a strong love relationship with his mother, but also a strong spiritual heritage: Two of his uncles have been monks, both coming from Vrioula. First elder Ignatius who lived for 70 years in Mount Athos, and the second, the blessed Seraphim, who lived next to Saint Iakovos Tsalikis in the monastery of Saint David, Evia. Both his uncles inspired him through their humility, humor and love for people and their place of origin. Elder Gabriel was the soul of St. Andrew's Church at Amerikis Square. A humble priest with a huge job. He often spoke about his origin that influenced his identity. He always referred to the value of the heart in human life. He suggested that we should lean on God, and lately kept saying we should be hooked on God.
Gerontissa Gavrilia said that the love of Christ and of the angels guided her to get very closely connected with Fr. Gabriel Tsafos. When Elder reposed, father Alexandros Karyotoglou said: “I served as a chanter for 25 years at the chapel of St. Andrew, after an invitation of Father Gabriel. I met him during our university studies. A man of a rare and genuine love. Humility, humor, deep and essential Faith. After Easter I participated in the Divine Liturgy at the Monastery. We looked into each other’s eyes, he kissed me and I kissed him. At the hospital he might have recognized me, I caressed him… All said in this touch...!
Memory Eternal, my friend and co-priest father Gabriel. Your ancestors from Vrioula, Asia Minor are waiting for you and so many others ...".
________
Sophia Chatzi
published in the Greek newspaper
ORTHODOX ALITHIA
published in the Greek newspaper
ORTHODOX ALITHIA
translated in English by https://orthodoxgladness.blogspot.com/
Είναι πλάνη! Ανήκει στη Θεοσοφία! Δεν είναι ορθοδοξη αυτή η "γερόντισσα"! Είσαστε υποχρεωμένοι να ψάξετε και να ερευνήσετε αυτά που σας λέω. Οδηγείτε ψυχές στην αίρεση, στην παναιρεση την έσχατη.
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφή