Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Recent Repose of Two Contemporary Elders of Greece

Blessed Eldress Styliani (Karatzogianni) of the Holy Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, Ntaou Penteli (+ October 8th, 2019) (source)
  
Gerontissa (Eldress) Styliani, Abbess of the Holy Monastery of Ntaou Penteli (+ October 8th, 2019)
On October 8th, 2019, the blessed Eldress of the Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ, Ntaou Penteli, reposed in the Lord.

Eldress Nun Styliani was born on September 14th 1933 as Angeliki Karatzogianni, in Neochorion, Mesolongi. She completed elementary school in Neochorion, Masolongi, and Middle School in Nicea. At the age of 21, she became a novice at the Holy Monastery of Ypapanti (the Meeting) of the Lord in Kalamata under the guidance of Blessed Elder Joel Giannakopoulos and in September 1958, she entered the Holy Monastery of St. Patapios in Loutraki. There she became a rasophore nun on Palm Sunday 1950.

On March 9th 1963, through the activities of the then Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens and All Greece, her Eldress, Styliane Gousopoulos, together with five other nuns from the Holy Monastery of St. Patapios, rebuilt the Holy Monastery of Christ Pantocrator Ntaou Penteli in the Holy Archdiocese of Athens.

On the feast of Theophany, 1963, the enthronement of the first Eldress Styliani occurred, but also the tonsure to the great-schema of the later Abbess by the blessed Archbishop Ieronymos I of Greece. The repose of the first Abbess occurred on September 6th, 1974, and on October 15th of the same year, blessed Eldress Styliane Karatzogianni was elected unanimously as the new Abbess of the Monastery. Her enthronement occurred under the blessed Archbishop Seraphim of Athens and All Greece.

During the period of her Abbacy, the Holy Monastery of Christ Pantocrator Ntaou Penteli came to know great spiritual flowering. It gathered a great sisterhood of young nuns, and the Monastery was rebuilt from the foundations.
(source)
  
See here for more on the Blessed Abbess Styliani's relationship with St. Porphyrios at the Monastery of Ntaou Penteli.
  
Picture of St. Paisios the Athonite (center), together with blessed Elder Gregory (right) and Eldress Euphemia (left), at the Holy Monastery of the Precious Forerunner, Metamorphosi, Halkidiki (source)
  
Elder Gregory (Papasotiriou), spiritual father of the Holy Monastery of the Precious Forerunner, Metamorphosi, Halkidiki (+ November 19th, 2019)
After many years of struggle, Elder Gregory (Papasotiriou), the spiritual father and founder of the Holy Monastery of the Precious Forerunner, Metamorphosi, Halkidiki, reposed in the Lord. He was a spiritual child of St. Paisios the Athonite.

The blessed Elder was ordained a deacon and a priest by the blessed Metropolitan Synesios of Kassandreias (Visvine), and was placed as a preacher of the Holy Metropolis of Kassandreias.

In 1977, with the blessing of Metropolitan Synesios, and through the spiritual guidance of St. Paisios the Athonite, he founded the women's hesychasterion of the Precious Forerunner, in Metamorphosi, Halkidiki, with the first nuns, Eugenia and Maria Choriataki, Sophia Kenanidou from Metamorphosi, Halkidiki, and nuns Tsaprazolou from Vatopedi, Halkidiki.

The blessed Elder Gregory was a spiritual child of St. Paisios the Athonite, and under his spiritual guidance, he received the angelic schema, and under his direction and blessing, he became the spiritual father of the Holy Monastery of the Precious Forerunner, which today includes 50 nuns.
(source)
  
Elder Gregory (right) (source)
  
May the Lord grant them a blessed repose and a blessed Paradise, and may we have their blessings!
  
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

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