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Gerontissa Gabrielia (1897-1992), also known as Gavrilia, was a 20th century saintly Greek Orthodox nun. Born in Constantinople on October 2/15, 1897 to Helias and Victoria Papayanni(s), was the fourth and last child of the family. She went to England in 1938 to train in chiropody and physiotherapy, returning to Greece in 1945 and opening a psychiatry clinic. In 1954, after the repose of her mother, she travelled to India and worked with the poorest of the poor.

In 1959, she went to Monastery of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun, and she was told, for a prayer rule, to follow the Gospels and the writings of St. John Climacus, in the original Byzantine Greek. In 1963, travelling to France and America, she returned to Greece and was tonsured to the Small Schema by Elder Amphilochios on Patmos, then returned to India, working with Fr Lazarus (Moore).

In 1992, having gone to many mission fields and finally returned to found a hesychastarion in Greece, she received the Great Schema from Fr Dionysios of Little St. Anne's Skete, Mount Athos. In the same year, she reposed in Leros, Greece.


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