Our holy Mother Makrina, the abbess of a monastery in central Greece, is venerated for her personal holiness of life and has been called “The Grandmother of the revival of Orthodox Monastic Life in America”.

Mother Makrina was born in 1921 with the name Maria Vassopoulou and from a young age was attracted to the things of God. When she was seven she declared to her parents that she wanted to become a nun. Her father asked “Have you ever seen a nun?” Maria replied, “No, but I believe this will help me to reach God”.

At the age of ten tragedy struck Maria’s family when both of her parents fell asleep in the Lord within a year of each other, leaving her younger brother George and herself orphans. With no one to care for them, Maria went in search of a job to support the two of them: first, working in factory that processed nuts and then in a cigarette factory. Maria also found work as a housemaid for a wealthy family. Here she became acquainted with Father Ephraim Karagiannis, a monk from Mount Athos who was a spiritual child of St. Joseph the Hesychast. From Father Ephraim she learned the practice of the Jesus Prayer which she began praying as she went about her household tasks. During this time she also become friends with a woman named Victoria Moraitis who was the mother of the future Elder Ephraim of Arizona.

In April 1941 another tragedy struck the two of them and all of Greece as Germany invaded and occupied Greece. This led to an economic depression and unemployment and poverty were rampant. Maria and her brother were reduced to beging food at the doors of those well-off. Unable to care for herself and her brother and facing starvation, she sent George to be cared for by an uncle in Thessalonica. Throughout these difficult years Maria never abandoned her faith, she found a spiritual father for frequent Confession and became part of an informal sisterhood with other girls her age who encouraged each other in the faith. She often woke up early, 3:00 a.m., attended church services and then went to her job. While working in the cigarette factory, she never counted the cigarettes to be put into each box but repeated the Jesus Prayer and trusted God to be sure the count was correct.

Monastic Life

In 1957, Maria moved into a home with six other girls who, like her, were devoted to the practice of their Orthodox Faith. While each of them had secular jobs, they lived together like nuns under the direction and guidance of St. Joseph the Hesychast. While he lived in a remote part of Mount Athos he provided guidance through letters and was blessed with the spiritual gift of knowing their questions and difficulties even before they wrote to him. One of the sisters tells this story about him:

He foretold everything to us. He wrote about everything happening in our monastery without

 

having been told. Once when I was a novice, my sister (who was also a novice) got very sick. I was very upset and said in my prayers: “Panagia, why? We came here to serve you. Why should she get sick and not be able to offer her help to the monastery? Then I went down to the courtyard and wept beneath an olive tree all night. A few days later, a letter came for me from Geronda Joseph. He wrote: “My little child, I hear your voice and I can’t bear it. The pain breaks my heart and interrupts my prayer. Don’t weep. Your sister will get well.” He wrote this without anyone telling him!

As St. Joseph approached death in 1959, he blessed Elder Ephraim (later of Arizona) to become the new spiritual father for the girls. Elder Ephraim tonsured them as nuns and in 1962 they began a monastery in Portaria, Volos, Greece: the Monastery of Panagia Odigitria (She Who Directs the Way). Elder Ephraim tonsured Maria with the name Makrina in honor of the blessed Sister of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa and installed her as the abbess. He tonsured his own mother, Victoria Moraitis, with the name Theophano.

As abbess of the sisterhood she was called Gerontissa (the female form of “elder”) Makrina and was known for her warm hospitality to visitors, her love, spiritual discernment and support for those in need of bodily and spiritual guidance. Her renown as a spiritual mother spread throughout Greece as hundreds went on pilgrimage to the monastery to seek her guidance and prayers. Elder Ephraim of Arizona wrote about her:

“She was an extremely virtuous person, distinguished by her humility, meekness, attentiveness, and unceasing prayer…Her infinite patience, love, and vigilant concern for the salvation of the sisterhood continually occupied her. The problems with which people approached her also become her own problems. She strived with her prayers and words to help them find solutions.”

Gerontissa Makrina was a woman of prayer, this strengthened her bond to her Lord and from this union she was able to bless, nourish and guide her sisterhood and the multitudes of people who sought her guidance and help. No matter how busy or tired she became with her daily tasks, she always completed her monastic prayer rule. Along with the daily services in the monastery church, her typical prayer rule was four 300-knot prayer ropes making the Sign of the Cross at each knot while reciting the Jesus Prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”

Stavros Kourousis, professor at Athens University, said about her:

When people spoke with her, they saw in her face the virtues of virginity, purity, humility, obedience, unacquisitiveness, and boundless love for God and neighbor—not only for her sisters, but for everyone who came to her seeking spiritual and material support. She was a person of unceasing prayer and communion with God and the saints, by which she constantly received help in numerous temptations arising in her work of nourishing the souls entrusted to her.

To America

Elder Ephraim, after reviving several monasteries on Mount Athos and elsewhere in Greece, traveled several times to Canada and the United States to seek medical treatment. While there he recognized the great spiritual hunger that existed among Orthodox Christians and the lack of monasteries for people to visit for spiritual guidance and renewal. In a vision, he saw his elder, St. Joseph the Hesychast who poured into his lap a large number of oranges saying “You will plant oranges, dear one! You will see how much fruit there will be!” Elder Ephraim knew he needed to focus his attention on the spiritual growth of Orthodox Christians in America. Why America? The Elder said that the work of building monasteries is for the last times when the “enemy” (antichrist) will come, and in America because it is from there that it all will begin and people here are in need of spiritual nourishment and help.

With the assistance and blessing of Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh, Elder Ephraim established his first American monastery in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania in 1989 and dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos. But the monastery needed nuns to populate it and to begin the ministry of prayer and spiritual support to Americans. Where would the nuns come from? Elder Ephraim turned to Gerontissa Makrina to send some of her sisters. Makrina cried at the thought of parting with some of nuns to far away America. She considered them her beloved children and she their mother. She wanted to protect them, guide them and watch over them. She said:

“What other mother has worried so much as I have? So many children to raise, educate – so you can take them right out of my hands?”

The first abbess she sent to the Saxonburg monastery was Gerontissa Taxiarchia. Taxiarchia wrote to her spiritual mother Makrina and shared her struggles in this new land. She was at first completely alone in a foreign land, with a foreign language and culture and no one to support her. Gerontissa Makrina eventually flew to America in 1992 and saw with her own eyes the struggle of her spiritual daughter. Even though Elder Ephraim requested more sisters for his American monasteries, Makrina resisted: “As long as I live, I cannot give any more!” Mother Makrina eased her opposition in 1994 when her beloved Taxiarchia fell asleep in the Lord after only five years in America. During the funeral a miracle occurred, droplets of fragrant oil began oozing from the head of Gerontissa Taxiarchia in her coffin. Gerontissa Makrina was present at the funeral and seeing the miracle recognized the will of God and agreed to give up more nuns to come to America.

The ministry of Elder Ephraim flourished in America and eventually 17 monasteries for either men or women were established all over the United States and Canada. These monasteries are bursting at the seams with both Orthodox Christians and converts who are seeking to devote their lives to the service of God. While Elder Ephraim is often called the “Father of the Revival of Orthodox Monastic Life in America” and Mother Makrina is the “grandmother” since she trained, nurtured, cared for and supported her spiritual daughters whom she sent to care for and pray for the Orthodox Christians of America. After an illness, she peacefully fell asleep in the Lord on June 4, 1995, telling her sisterhood that Gerontissa Taxiarchia was coming for her.

Why Monks?    Why Nuns?

While there are dozens of Orthodox monasteries across the United States and Canada, many Orthodox Christians have never visited a monastery and do not understand the purpose of their existence. What is attracting young Orthodox men and women, along with converts to the Faith, to join a monastery?

As the Christian Church emerged from years of persecution by the Romans, the Church grew rapidly and became “socially acceptable” while the seriousness and devotion of some of its members began to cool. There remained many men and women who took to heart the Lord’s warning:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  (Matthew 7:13)

And they wanted to live His command:

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19:21)

These men and women began to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of daily life to seek and follow the Lord completely without reservation. They formed small communities, living together, working together, praying together and supporting each other in living out the Lord’s commands. This was the beginning of what is known as monastic life. While the earliest records of Christian monastic life can be traced to the third century, the attraction of living whole heartedly for the Lord continues to this day as men and women, like Gerontissa Makrina, respond to the Lord’s call to “Enter by the narrow gate…” and to acquire “…treasure in heaven…”

Teachings of Gerontissa Makrina

When a person progresses in prayer, he feels another world, another life. He feels within himself conditions that one cannot even imagine.

Because we judge and condemn, we’re busy looking at others. For this reason we cannot progress.

Earnestly seek the “Jesus Prayer” like those who are searching to find a pearl. Without the “Jesus Prayer”, Christ is not in the heart. It will teach one to love Christ. Whoever seeks the “Jesus Prayer” like gold and uses it every minute, overcomes, accepts, and forbears everything. Then God and the Panagia (Theotokos) cover him.

Divine Grace leaves because of condemnation, anger, pride, and foul thoughts. When man pays attention to these, Divine Grace is in the soul of man.

We should go to receive Holy Communion with fear and trembling. With tears let us approach the Divine Mystery because tears are humility. We should weep from the remembrance of death, not out of grief because someone offended us. One Holy Father said, just as we approach Holy Communion with fear and trembling, in the same manner we should have reverence for others because they are the image of God. It we treat every person in this way, it is impossible that God will not forgive us, because God is love.

Whoever does not struggle in prayer does not have God within him and is unruly. We should do everything with fear of God and with much love.

We must be attentive to our style of life, to our manners, to how we relate to those around us. How important it is! You see your brother—you see the Lord Himself! This is why the holy fathers had so much love and compassion.

Those young people who preserve their purity will have in the next life the grace of the ancient confessors.

We will have a struggle till we die, because the passions are kneaded with our blood….Without toil,  no one can be saved…The more one toils the more Grace he receives.          

God repays everything. Nothing goes in vain.

For further reading:

Words of the Heart  by Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou

available from:

St. John the Forerunner Monastery
Goldendale, Washington

On the life of St. Joseph the Hesychast

“Elder Joseph the Cave Dweller”

 

 

 

 

-      Father Edward Pehanich