https://pagespineficshowcase.com/end-notes-2018.html
A lot of unknown facts about Gavrilia Papagianni will see the light of day!The fact that a great saint of our time got bashed like nobody else proves once again that Orthodoxy is a rough terrain that heaves and rolls like a ship yet it survives the tempests and tramples down devil which in the end makes our faith stronger…
A special thank you to my Editor Nancy who wanted to give a home to a poem I wrote about Gavrillia, who guides and protects me. Thank you so much, my friend.
Also, a great thanks to my editor who entrusted me with writing the book and of course all those who helped me by providing testimonies to the sainthood of gerontissa Gavrillia.
One of the most amazing testimonies I was vouchsafed comes from a nun who I did not know she knew Gerontisa Gavrilia and who related to me a most wonderful experience that her spiritual father in Maroussi had and who miraculously used to be my confessor. Well, this surely is not a fluke and neither is the confluence of events that followed as if they were beckoning me to unravel them. I am telling you this book is a revelation. But let me get on with what I was talking about previously. This spiritual father from Saint Nicholas Church, Father Jacob, was invited to her house in Patissia where she used to live and he was absolutely stunned to see the piano pounding out melodic tunes. It was “the angels who were belting out the melody” he explains. Gavrilia had asked the angels to play a most enchanting tune to regale her spiritual father with and believe me it was the most angelic melody he had ever heard. The presence of the angels in Gavrilia’s life is evident throughout her life. Her powers of foresight were a gift endowed upon her by our Lord as she was a pure soul where the Holy Spirit indwelled.
While writing the book, I met the most amazing persons who happened to give me accounts of her life which have deliberately been kept under wraps. I am so happy that I got the chance to understand the workings of her faith. Having subjugated her wants and likes, she let herself be guided by the will of God, never complaining and always smiling in the face of adversity.
Lalita, Dafni, Alan and so many others who were converted to Orthodoxy felt her effulgence and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and abandoned their old ways at the drop of the hat.
Below is a poem that was published at Page and Spine recounting her visit to Sinai not in bodily form but spiritually as she could be transferred to other places and whenever they asked for her help. More about this in subsequent features.
A Flower From Heaven that Blossomed in Earth’s Garden
A tribute to Gavrilia Papagianni
you came from heaven
the most fragrant flower
you blossomed in my yard
such heavenly light you brought into my life
on Sinai you touched the sky
reaching the Holy summit you knelt down
like Moses you spoke with God
with such humility that melted the rocks
like treacle you mellowed the cruelest heart,
the rugged desert is calling out your name,
like water it misses you after your departure
you were a burnt offering to heaven
Sofia Kioroglou copyright 2018
