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The blessed gerontissa Taxiarchia acquired
the gifts of ceaseless prayer, of healing the human body and soul,
clairvoyance, fervent faith, and the love of Christ. Gerontissa labored in
monastic podvigs for many long years. There are known cases of when her prayers
healed cancer patients. After Gerontissa Taxiarchia’s blessed repose the Lord
attested to her podvig by the appearance of fragrant myrrh on her face. Below
is a collection of memories of Gerontissa, from those who knew her well.
Eleana Mitchell, spiritual child of Elder
Ephraim:
The
blessed Gerontissa Taxiarchia was born and raised in the Greek village of
Agria, near the city of Volos. In early childhood, during the civil war, she
was left without a father. Her name in the world was Aphrodita Dukas. The
blessed gerontissa was generously endowed with beauty, both external and
internal. She was, from an early age, as they say, a true bride of Christ.
All alone
in a strange city, amidst unknown people, growing weak, emaciated, with sunken
cheeks, the young girl battled her illness alone, dreaming only of how to see
her mama sooner and tell her about all her sufferings. However, when this
long-awaited day finally arrived, and her mother came to see her, Aphrodita as
if heard the voice of God, which enlightened her to refrain from speaking about
her sufferings. It’s as if her ego was put in second place.
She began
to reason with wisdom surprising for her young age: “Oh, how I grieve for my
mama, poor widow! After all, doesn’t she love me? Doesn’t she worry about me?”
And, recognizing in this inner voice the voice of God, Aphrodita said to her
mother: “Oh, dear mama! I’m fine in the hospital: they take care of me and feed
me here! There are several women who visit me and bring me sweets, and chocolates
and books. Time flew by so quickly!” “Then, Aphrodita, you weren’t upset that I
couldn’t often visit you?” “No, mama, I didn’t have any time to be sad or
upset!” Her words greatly comforted her mother and she returned home with peace
of soul.
The girl
was again left alone, but now her sickness and needs were of no consequence in
comparison with the joy of seeing and comforting her mother.
At that
time, she prayed every day, as she herself told us, that the Lord would take
her from this life, because she saw herself as undeserving and worthless and
only complicating the lives of her mother, brothers, and sisters.
But the
Omniscient God did not fulfill her request, but instead vouchsafed her to
accept the angelic schema in the monastery of the Panagia Hodigitria, not far
from Volos, with the great gerontissa Macrina, who taught her and nourished
within her, along with the other sisters of the monastery, the virtues of
sacrifice, love, patience, and obedience.
As I
recall from her words, she said: “Do you know when I understood why the Lord
didn’t take me then? When Elder Ephraim told me, when I was fifty, that I had
to live in America!”
Blessed
be the Lord God, leaving this blessed soul on earth, that we might be granted
to meet and get to know her! The blessed gerontissa was a pious, chaste, good,
and noble eldress, prone to self-sacrifice. She was the guardian of orphans
here in the US.
The good
things of the world and worldly viewpoints didn’t interest her in the
slightest. Mother’s sole concern was the salvation of all, and of her own soul.
Day and night, despite being tired to the point of exhaustion, she gave herself
to heartfelt prayer. “Have you ever slept standing up, with open eyes?”
Gerontissa asked us, smiling with her blessed smile which filled our hearts
with heavenly bliss. “No, Gerontissa, never!” “It has happened to me,” answered
this blessed soul.
Without
any abuse, rigor, condemnation or reproach, but only with her kindness and
gentleness, she could easily open a person’s soul and purify it. And she knew
how to make every one of your days spent with her lived to the glory of God! As
soon as the sun rises in the dawn, you immediately and involuntarily say: “What
can I do today to thank God?” and you do it automatically, from your whole
heart.
She fell
asleep in the Lord on August 3, 1994. From the hospital to the monastery huge
pure streams of rain accompanied her exodus. There was another miracle—that
numerous sweet-smelling droplets of myrrh, glistening in the sun, appeared on
her face after death. We all experienced this blessed “joyful sorrow.”
Gerontissa Theophano, the current abbess of the
Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos:
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia came to Pennsylvania in 1989 in July, and I came in March 1990, from
New York. At first we just had a small wooden home with two bedrooms, and
nothing more. We were three sisters.
When
Elder Ephraim came to visit our monastery for the first time (at that time he
would spend three months in America and nine months at Philotheou Monastery on
Mt. Athos), I said to him, about Gerontissa Taxiarchia: “She is truly a saint!”
which was obvious from first sight. And he answered me: “I sent here one of my
best nuns… No, she is my very best nun.”
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| Gerontissa Theophano |
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia really was a holy person. She had a heart condition, and upon
arriving in America they discovered she had breast cancer. Other women
suffering from cancer were healed by her prayers. For example, there was a case
where once three or four pilgrims visited us to meet with Gerontissa. Among
them was one nun, the mother of one of our sisters, who was discovered to have
cancer. She wanted to tell Gerontissa about it, but she didn’t allow her to say
anything, only repeating: “It’s nothing, nothing.” And so, not asking anything,
Gerontissa touched the place where the cancer was found.
Nuns
usually avoid touching, but Gerontissa touched precisely on the suffering spot
and said to her: “Don’t worry, matushka, you are all clean.” When matushka
returned home, the doctors couldn’t find any cancer at all.
Another
pilgrim, who also had breast cancer, came to us as part of the same group.
Gerontissa Taxiarchia was giving out something as a blessing, and this woman
wanted to stand in line. Here Gerontissa begins to push her out of the line.
This pilgrim was quite surprised and after a while came back and stood again at
the end of the line. Gerontissa again asked her to leave. This repeated several
times, and then Gerontissa said to her: “You have no more cancer.”
Another
miracle occurred with a family from Tennessee that we know well. Throughout many
years they had no children, and Gerontissa said to them: “Don’t fret! Next year
you will come to me with a child.” And so it happened that in a year they
visited with their newborn daughter.
There was
another case of healing already after Gerontissa’s death. There was a woman who
worked in a beauty salon as a hairdresser. From working with chemicals for so
many years she had serious problems with her fingernails. She took oil from the
lampada that we lit in church during Gerontissa’s funeral. We always add oil to
this lampada. So, this woman anointed her fingers with the oil from the lampada
and after that she was healed.
There was
another woman, who has already passed away, who from her youth suffered from a
very severe form of asthma. She helped Elder Ephraim with the building of our
monastery. Before Gerontissa reposed, this woman asked her: “Gerontissa, can I
ask you a favor? Please, take away my asthma!” Then after Gerontissa’s death,
and this woman was already around eighty years old, her asthma left her
forever.
We have
accumulated many such stories. She was holy, a real saint. Just like Elder
Ephraim, she was able to read our thoughts. She was all love.
Because
she was the first of Elder’s nuns to move to America, and also because of her
all-consuming love, women from completely different places sought her out, from
the places where other monasteries of Elder Ephraim were subsequently
built—from New York, Chicago, and so on. Sometimes she would tell these
pilgrims: “When you build a monastery for your home, don’t forget that you
should help your gerontissa just as you help me.” Thus she prepared them for
this mission beforehand.
One day a
man brought us an old icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. He didn’t realize what
kind of icon it was. This was an Orthodox man married to a Protestant. His wife
was going to throw out all the icons. It so happened that two nuns, mother and
daughter, passed by and heard their conversation, as he tried to convince his
wife not to toss the icons. They suggested that he give the icons to the
monastery.
The man
came to the monastery with the icon wrapped up and said to Gerontissa: “I won’t
open it until tomorrow.” He didn’t realize what a treasure he had. They next
day we celebrated the “Unfading Bloom” icon of the Mother of God. They
unwrapped the bundle and saw that it was precisely the same icon, the “Unfading
Bloom.” When Gerontissa took the icon, the whole monastery was filled with the
sweet scent. You could smell it everywhere—upstairs, downstairs, even in the
basement. This icon is still in our monastery.
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia departed to the Lord on August 3, 1994 at the age of fifty-eight.
Probably about a thousand people came here for her funeral. Each person felt
loved by Gerontissa more than all…
When
Gerontissa reposed, before we buried her, droplets of myrrh appeared on her
face, which emanated a wondrous fragrance. I collected this myrrh with cotton
which I have kept until now. It’s been twenty-one years, and that cotton swab
to this day is fragrant.
Nun Nektaria, oldest inhabitant of the
Monastery of Panagia Hodigitria in Portaria:
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| Gerontissas Macrina and Taxiarchia |
I knew Gerontissa
Taxiarchia from the moment she arrived to our monastery. She had a heart
condition and had to undergo two heart surgeries: one while she was still
living in the world, and the second after she had become a nun. Before the
first operation she made a vow: if the operation would be successful then she
would spend six months in a monastery, helping the sisters and praying, in this
way thanking the Most Holy Theotokos.
Having
spent six months in Portaria, she realized that she liked the monastic life and
that she wanted to stay here. She began to ask Gerontissa Macrina to accept her
into the monastery. At first Gerontissa was afraid to keep her, fearing that
her weak heart couldn’t endure the severe monastic style of life. But she so
begged and was so kind and obedient that in the end Gerontissa agreed, and
Elder Ephraim blessed her to stay.
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia was very quickly accounted worthy of tonsure into the schema,
because, in the words of Gerontissa Macrina, “she was completely ready for it.”
She had
obediences in the kitchen and guest house. Gerontissa Macrina had high blood
sugar, and Sister Taxiarchia prepared her food. She attended to this obedience
very attentively, measured everything meticulously—how much of what to add so
as not to violate the doctor’s orders. She loved her gerontissa very much.
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| Unfinished work of Gerontissa Taxiarchia |
She was
very good at embroidering, which she started doing while still in the world.
Her embroidery looked as if it wasn’t created by human hands. When Gerontissa
Taxiarchia lived in our monastery she embroidered with her own hands golden
altar cloths for the Holy Mountain. She had many such gifts and grace from God.
She loved everyone and was equally kind to everyone.
Her
second obedience in the monastery was to meet guests and pilgrims. She had the
gift of words. She could find a path to any person, and her words were always
enlightened with love; that is, they enlightened others. She helped the sisters
at other obediences—she always hastened to help where help was needed.
She was a
person of God and a great woman of prayer. She was distinguished by nobility,
mercy, and sacrifice. Prayer came from her mouth continuously. When you spoke
with her, you could feel that the Holy Spirit dwelt within her.
She had
to have a second operation before leaving for America. She had so much faith in
God that she didn’t fear this operation even a little bit. After she left for
America we continued to communicate, writing letters to one another.
From a story of Elena Ksenu from Volos, sixty-five
years old, and a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim for twelve years:
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia was from the village neighboring us, Agria. As a child, they say,
she was very kind and gentle. From childhood her future character was
evident—very easy and accommodating.
She was a
very talented iconographer, and embroidered icons by hand. Faces of Christ, and
of the Mother of God and of the saints came from her like living faces—because
she did it with prayer.
She had
some kind of special softness in her face, and her words were very
comforting—there was a feeling as if you were speaking with an angel. That’s
why Elder Ephraim chose to send her to America when he opened his first
monastery there. She lived there alone at first.
I knew
her sister according to the flesh, who has already departed to the Lord. They
all lived in Agria. Her sister showed me a dried twig from some tree, which
Gerontissa Taxiarchia sent her in one of her letters from America. She wrote:
“My dear sister, do you see this twig? This twig is from one of the trees that
grow here, around my monastery. Each of them has been abundantly watered by the
tears of my loneliness.
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| Elder Ephraim |
She
didn’t know the language or customs—nothing. The elder decided, and she showed
unconditional obedience—that’s how Elder Ephraim’s first monastery appeared in
America. She didn’t object to the elder’s decision, not even a word. She
accepted it with peace. She left for America to live there; and there she died.
After
some time local Greeks and immigrants learned about the monastery and began to
go there for Sunday services. At first they appeared in the monastery dressed
up, with stylish hairdos, and they came to the monastery to socialize with one
another. The Greek diaspora in America at that time had seriously deviated and
fallen under the influence of the Catholic Church. Gerontissa very quickly made
them Orthodox Christians again.
Some
older nuns from Portaria told me this story about Gerontissa Taxiarchia. During
her second heart surgery in Greece there was a Greek Orthodox priest there next
to her. When she came to herself after the operation she suffered greatly from
pain. It was so painful that she lost consciousness. In that moment, when she
had just recovered, this priest heard her say: “O, Mother of God, how beautiful
you are! You are the most beautiful, the most beautiful on earth!” She saw the
Theotokos directly before her. She saw the holy apostles and spoke with them:
“O holy Apostles Peter and Paul, how beautiful, how beautiful you are! Oh, how
beautiful!”
Gerontissa
Taxiarchia labored in America for five years and died due to her poor health.
After her death, immediately after her funeral, miracles began to happen at her
grave. A few days after her funeral a family came to the monastery that had
earlier visited Gerontissa. Their daughter had eczema. They found out that
Gerontissa had reposed and they got upset. The girl’s skin was anointed with
oil from the lampada that burned at her grave. Her eczema cleared up immediately
and hasn’t returned yet. There have been many other miracles.
Ioannis Devorak, an American with Russian
roots living near St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona:
When my
wife and I first went to the monastery in Pennsylvania, I didn’t know anything
about Gerontissa Taxiarchia. I hadn’t even seen a photo of her. We hadn’t spent
much time in the monastery, were already planning to leave and got into the car
when my wife asked me to return to the church and buy some candles. It was
already evening and and the church was deserted. There was nobody around except
for one elderly nun who was sitting and making prayer ropes. Off in the
distance I spotted three deer peacefully grazing.
I went up
to the nun to say hello and take her blessing. “Did you see those three deer?
They come here every evening when I sit here and tie prayer ropes. Do you know
how to tie prayer ropes?” she asked me. I answered that I didn’t know how, and
then she asked: “Would you like me to teach you?” I responded that,
unfortunately, we were leaving just then, and they were waiting for me. She
said: “Ok, then I’ll teach you next time when you come visit me in a year.”
I wasn’t
planning to come here again, but I didn’t object, politely said goodbye, bought
some candles, and we left. Sometime later I was at a friend’s house and I saw a
photograph of Gerontissa Taxiarchia, and was surprised to recognize her as the
same nun that spoke with me in Pennsylvania. I started asking about her and was
even more surprised to learn that she had already died. And after a year I
really did go back to the monastery. Exactly one year later was the uncovering
of the relics of blessed Gerontissa Taxiarchia; Elders Ephraim and Paisios invited
me to go with them, and, of course, I agreed.
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord
Jesus Christ our God have mercy upon us!
By Olga Rozhneva
Source: http://orthochristian.com/98455.html
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