The historian Thucydides, in his "Epitaph" (funeral
oration) of Pericles
(chapter 45), writes: "one who does not exist, no one will praise
him." For the demise, we are used to praising their deeds. However, on this occasion, the praise to you, sister Patapia is not rhetorical, as you
spent your whole transient life with Jesus Christ.
Indeed, your whole tangible life was a burning candle
before the icon of Saint Patapios. When you were young, as Evgenia
(her lay name), you sang: "Everything may it be for the glory of Christ;
this saying should become our great maxim"!
The flame of your heart was inextinguishable. It was a
living spark lit by the torchbearer, then priest of the settlement of Corinth
and later founder and Elder of the nunnery of Saint Patapios (in Loutraki, a
city near Corinth, in Greece), Father Nectarios Marmarinos. He was the preacher
and spiritual director of the Diocese of Corinth.
The homeland maintains its integrity throughout life to heal the difficulties, adversities, threats, and failures. This flame was
delivered to you as alive, from your youth until the end of your life, in the
hand of the Lord's underlying savior.
With this flame, you were enlightened, and you healed.
You enlightened yourself with your words and deeds and heated the cooled hearts
of those who left the nest of Christ. Sister Patapia, you were consistent
with your words and deeds. Precision and moral strictness characterized your
life, which may have been misunderstood by some who did not know your heart.
I wanted to write in a few words that patience,
obedience, and generosity to others were the virtues that characterized
you. Father Nectarios taught (when she met him as a child at Sunday school)
that you always carry Christ in your heart. His preaching was flawless. So,
sister Patapia, you had always obeyed him, with careful and wise
footsteps, to keep your sanity.
You always showed love and respect to Saints,
particularly Saint Patapios and Saint Hypomone (her name means patience), and
all people, especially the poor. You became aware of poverty, as you always
empathized with (and helped) the poor. You never felt tired since offering help to others filled your heart.
You even gathered medicine to send to Albania's
missionary while in the nunnery's apartment in Athens. You
visited hospitals, and your home in Athens became a center of care for the rich
and the poor, a center of prayer. When you encountered temptation, you ignored
it, following the prompt of Saint Niphon: "If you are tempted, do not give
in; just leave this place and go to other places where you will spend your life
in peace."
It was in the Metohi (the nunnery's residence) of
Antheon road (meaning Flower Street) in the district of Patisia in Athens where I met sister Patapia. I was impressed by her zeal and accepted her
admonitions. With sister Patapia we published many books with biographies and
sequences of Saints. We praised the Saints whom sister Patapia considered familiar
and, according to Prophet Elias, is deemed to be blissful; as he says, ' Blissful is the one who has the sperm of Zion and family in Jerusalem' (Elias,
9).
Blessed sister Patapia, you were one (in the early
1950s) of the first nuns who inhabited the area beside the cage of Saint
Patapios' relic (when a nunnery did not exist) to live there (with another two
sisters). There you found nothing but three chambers. You saw no water, no
heating, almost nothing (even no food). But you did not worry about it. You
never complained or showed that you felt tired. You always smiled since Christ
gave you the charisma of patience, as He was a permanent tenant of your heart.
You lived in your Monastery for twenty years, but your
health problems (her asthma) did not allow you to stay there for long. (But
some decades later, she returned from Athens, where she remained for a long time because
of her health problems). So, as a simple nun, as the humblest of all, you
continued your life in the nunnery until your demise.
Until your last moment, you were in the bed of pain,
where you received the love of the Mother Superior and the sisters of the
nunnery. Today, all of us in sorrow are praying for your soul, but we keep
happiness that you will enter the ultimate blessedness of heaven.
We shall pray to "the living persons who are
left" (1 Thessalonians D,7) to the place where "there is no sadness,
sorrow, nor sigh." We will pray for you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
where you will find eternal peace.
The one-way ticket to the intangible homeland of
heaven, you had secured it from your genuine Christian wisdom, your monastic
life, your virtuous deeds, your obedience, your humiliation, your sacrifices,
and your patience with the pain of your infirmities. You shone "As gold in a
crucible" like an eternal star in heaven.
Give us your blessing, our everlasting Sister Patapia, so we may at least be able to imitate your virtuous life's glorious
achievements.
Let your soul meet your body in Resurrection!
Reference: (23 October 2017) translation of the obituary written by Dr. Haralambos Bοussias. Reference: https://www.romfea.gr/diafora/17777-ekoimithi-i-gerontissa-patapia-proigoumeni-tis-im-osiou-patapiou
Note: In brackets, explanatory
information is given.
Sister (nun) Patapia was born in 1931 in Corinth, Greece, and passed away in 2016. Her real name was Eugenia Tsetsoni. Since early childhood, she attended in Corinth the Sunday school of Father Nektarios Marmarinos. This holly priest was born in Aegina, an island near Athens that raised many saints such as Saint Nektarios, Saint Hieronymus, etc. Father Nektarios was a disciple of Saint Hieronymus.
In 1952 Father Nektarios established a
monastery at the mountain Geraneia near Loutraki, a famous city for its
spas and mineral water. It is located near Corinth and is 1 hour from Athens by car. Father Nektarios decided to establish
the monastery at the cave, wherein in 1904, citizens from Loutraki found the
relic of Saint Patapios.
In those early years, there was not any nunnery there. So,
the cave of the Saint was unprotected. Some mean visitors of the Saints' cave
took pieces of the Saints' relics for an amulet. But in many of them, the Saint
appeared in their dreams and asked them to return his fragments to the nunnery. A priest
from Loutraki, Father Konstantinos Sousanis, took the relic of Saint Patapios
and kept it in his house (with the church's permission) away from the vandals.
Later, when Father Nektarios established the monastery, the relic returned to
the cave where it was discovered.
At age 21, sister Patapia decided to devote
herself to the monastery of Saint Patapios in Loutraki. She announced the news
to her parents, who initially reacted; however, in the following years accepted
her decision.
So, sister Patapia went to the cave of Saint Patapios in Loutraki, where the other three sisters (sister Kikilia, sister Stiliani, and sister Siglitiki; the last was mother superior) lived there in the small room – cells. At that time, there was no monastery. The saint's relic was kept in a coffin. There was no modern road from Loutraki to reach the monastery (but a small drift path). Also, there was no water supply.
So, the first nuns every day had to bring water from a spring some miles away from the monastery with the help of a donkey. Every day they needed to ascend and descend this harsh route from the sanctuary to the spring and viva versa.
The first Mother
Superior in 1952 was sister Siglitiki. In 1963 sister Patapia was named a
mother superior. She struggled hard to build the monastery. In the following years, Saint Patapios helped Father Nektarios and the nuns to build the sanctuary at his cave. Initially,
they created some room cells where the nuns could live. The nuns
had difficulty bringing the construction materials (such as cement, bricks, and sand) to the monastery because – as mentioned above – there wasn't any road to reaching the abbey.
The nuns used the donkey to carry the construction materials every day. They often brought this stuff on their back! Even sister Patapia, the mother superior, carried materials, e.g., sacks filled with cement or sand, on her back! They also had to carry jugs with water miles away from the monastery. They had to take the construction materials from many miles and ascend to the monastery.
However, they built the monastery patiently and with Saint Patapios' help. They faced a lot of difficulties. One day they had no money to pay the workers' wages for building the sanctuary. Sister Patapia was sad about it; however, Father Nektarios said God would help them. The next day a man came to the monastery and brought them food and a generous donation! With this, they paid the workers.
Over the years, the monastery thrived, and today it is
a lovely monastery with a modern road (it was constructed by the army in the
middle of the last century) and parking. All the constructions at the sanctuary
are completed: the room – cells for the 40 nuns that inhabit the monastery, the
church Panagia (Virgin Mary), the guestrooms, the cemetery (with its church
Saint Maria from Egypt), the saint Trinity church inside the nunnery, and the
exhibition room with handmade Christian stuff such as icons with Saints,
amulets, etc. The abbey also has its water supply, and today the nuns do not
need to carry water in jugs with water on their backs! However, there is still a
donkey to help the nuns!
Sister Patapia was a mother superior from 1963 until 1968 when she
resigned because of infirmities. Sister Isidora succeeded her. After her
demise in 2014, the new mother superior became sister, Chrisovalandi, the current
mother superior.
The miracles of Saint Patapios are countless. Many people that visit the monastery with faith have experienced a miracle, such
as healing from a disease. Women who could not conceive finally gave
birth by enfolding a special sheet (the nuns gave them) on their
waist. Most of the Saints' miracles are written down and kept in the nunnery
records, with names and addresses, so no one can debate them.
The miracles of Saint Patapios to sister Patapia were
also many. In the first years of the monastery, the nuns needed to descend the
mountain and go to Loutraki to supply food and other helpful stuff. One day
sister Patapia and sister Matrona went to Loutraki for supplies. But it took
them too long, so when they returned to the monastery, ascending the mountain
from a small path, it got dark in the evening, and they could not see where the
monastery was. However, the Saint helped them, and they saw a glowing light at the nunnery that guided them to it!
Also, one day, sister Patapia carried a sacking filled
with lime with a donkey to construct the nunnery. She ascended
to the monastery with the sack upon a donkey when it started to rain. She was sad when she finally reached the abbey because she thought the rain soaked
the lime. But when she opened the sack, it was intact (of course, in those years, the cover was not plastic but made of cardboard). The same miracle also occurred with
sister Xeni from Crete.
Once there was a lack of oil in the nunnery. A poor
woman visited the convent and brought a small amount of oil for the Saint's
candle. Sister Patapia asked the poor woman to place the small amount of oil in
a jug that they would use to fill the oil at the Saints candle. Later they
found the jar full of oil! The nuns gave the extra oil to the
poor.
Sister Patapia is an excellent example of how faith
can move mountains, and her living to an advanced age is a
miracle. She had 32 operations (most of them major, like gastrectomy, esophagus
operation, etc.), asthma, many (she mentioned 11) pulmonary
embolisms, three pulmonary edemas, and a heart attack. However, her condition
was quite good! Even her asthma improved a lot! All her doctors were
surprised that although she suffered many illnesses, she was mentally and
physically fine; she could walk and was in good condition. She claimed her faith and zeal in God, and Saint Patapios kept her alive.
Sister Patapia was the soul of the nunnery. She experienced many miracles by Saint Patapios; the most important was her health. Once, she was in the intensive care unit in Athens (at Sotiria hospital) and was about to die. The nuns brought her a Saint's amulet (with a piece of the relic), and in a few days, sister Patapia recovered utterly!
For many years, sister Patapia lived in Athens because she often needed to visit the hospital because of health problems. In 2007, she broke her hip and was transferred by ambulance to
the trauma hospital 'KAT' in Athens. The following year she recovered at the
nunnery's elderly residence room, a few miles from the abbey, in Loutraki.
Every day she watched the monastery from the window and asked the Saint to
help her return there. Initially, she walked with a walking aid and then with a
stick. She finally got rid of her cane, and one year after her accident, she
fully recovered and returned to the monastery to stay there permanently. She
still had a walking stick, but it was just to prevent falls. She
could walk perfectly without it! That was a miracle from the Saint.
Another miracle for sister Patapia was her health.
She has been suffering from asthma for years. Her doctors advised her not to
stay at the monastery because it was at a high altitude, and there was
inadequate oxygen, which could deteriorate her asthma. The Saint, with
his miracle, relieved her from asthma attacks.
Father Nektarios, the establisher of the nunnery,
continued his Sunday school in Corinth at Soinikismos until his
demise on 21 July 2019. Soinikismos is a place near the hospital of Corinth. His school was held in a room belonging to the church of Panagia (Virgin Mary) near this
church.
Father Nektarios used to visit the nunnery of Saint
Patapios every Friday morning. He also had established another monastery at
Geranoia (with monks, called 'the 3 Hierarchs'), summer camps for children
(also at the mountain Geranoia, called 'Bethlehem'), and an elderly residential
house in Loutraki. He had been awarded by the church of Corinth, in which he
was chancellor. He was also awarded by the archbishop of Greece at Saint Paul's
church in Corinth. There was the church the Apostle Paul established himself.
Closing this text, I want to mention that in the summer of 2009, massive fires burned a large area of Attica near Athens. Sister Patapia prayed at Saint Patapios' cave and pleased God to put out all these fires. She prayed not in a selfish way as we all do when we pray to God, but she prayed for the common good! Then a miracle happened. The fire brigade put out the fires. The next day it rained, putting out the remaining fires.
I strongly suggest following sister Patapia's example and not
praying only for our or our family's wellbeing, which is selfish, but also for the common good.
Let God bless us all!
Amen!
The monastery of Saint Patapios on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patapios The monastery of Saint Patapios on Orthodox Wiki https:...