Physical therapist, chiropodist, nun, servant of the poor, spiritual guide.

Mother Gabriela, also known as Gavrilia was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholmew and the Holy Synod of Constantinople on October 3, 2023. Known as the “Ascetic of Love”, she was an Orthodox nun known for her care of the poor and sick.

She was born Avrillia Papayannis in Constantinople in 1897 to Helias and Victoria Papayanni who moved to Thessalonica in 1923. In 1938 she moved to England where she was trained as a physical therapist and chiropodist. After World War II she returned to Greece where she opened her own therapy office in Athens. In her treatment room she hung an icon of Christ washing the feet of the apostles which she could see while treating patients. She spoke little during the treatments silently saying the Jesus Prayer and “O heavenly King…”.

Come Follow Me!

In 1954 her beloved mother died and Avrilia decided that she too had “died to the world” and gave away her inheritance to follow the Lord completely. She later wrote:

“The day of our parting, the day of my inner crisis, severed the last tie that had kept me bound to normal, material life on this earth…The only course that lay open before me now, urged me to take the
decisive step ‘Go and sell what you have and give to the poor’ then ‘Come and follow me.’”

She left for India where she began providing treatment for lepers and the poorest of the poor. She accepted no money for her services, trusting in the Lord to provide for her needs. She imitated the
unmercenary saints such as Sts. Cosmas and Damian and St. Panteleimon who served the sick without any monetary reward. In her younger years she was offered a job and during the interview was asked to
give her bank account information. She replied that she didn’t have a bank account and that her bank was in heaven. In India, she traveled to the most remote villages to serve the sick, taking as her only
book the Holy Scriptures. She was once criticized because she did not learn the local languages. She replied:

"Sir, I forgot to say that I know five languages. Smile is the first. Tears are the second. Touch is the third. Prayer is the fourth. Love is the fifth. With these five languages, I am at home in every place in the world."

After five years in India she felt a calling to completely devote herself to the Lord. In 1959 she traveled to the Monastery of Sts. Mary and Martha in Bethany in the Holy Land where she joined the community
of nuns. Here she remained for five years, learning the monastic life, reading the Gospels, the Holy Fathers, practicing prayer and fasting to battle her sinful passions. Upon returning to Greece she was
tonsured as nun by St. Amphilochios (Makris) on the island of Patmos  who blessed her to be a nun with a ministry of active outreach to the world.

As the Nun Gabriela she returned to India to resume providing medical care to the poor but she also traveled to wherever she was needed. She had the practice of refusing no requests, trusting the Lord to
provide the financial means. “I never said NO, I went whenever the need of my neighbor called me. “

In 1962 she was invited to the United States by the Protestant missionary Stanley Jones. He asked her to accompany him to visit Protestant communities to speak on asceticism and the practice of the Jesus
Prayer. With the blessing of Archbishop Iakovos she spent ten weeks traveling across the U.S. and Canada.

Retreat From the World

Orthodox theologian Paul Evdokimov was a spiritual son of Mother Gabriela reflected on her long years  of ministering to others:

“We witnessed on multiple occasions her healing touch on the sick and ourselves. With one touch or prayer, she relieved their pain, and they sensed an inner warmth. She insisted in all cases that it was
the piece of cotton or bandage, not her touch that gave them relief. But we knew full well that she was tell us that out of humility….She was over eighty, but in the eyes of many, she was looking younger and
more active than before. The people around her never saw her fatigued. As she used to say, ‘People who love never become tired.’”

But as she aged her body was no longer able to endure the rigors of the mission field. She returned to Athens around 1977 living quietly in a small apartment as she received visitors seeking her prayers and
words of comfort and guidance. Seeking more solitude in 1989 she moved to the Holy Protection Hermitage on the island of Aegina, close to the shrine of St. Nectarios. Here she continued a quiet life
of prayer continuing to receive people who saw her as their spiritual mother and guide. While living here she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer but refused all treatments. On Bright Saturday of 1990
she received Holy Communion and upon returning to her room she discovered that her tumors had disappeared.

The righteous Nun Gabriela eventually fell asleep in the Lord on March 28, 1992 at the age of 95. She was laid to rest in the hope of the resurrection at the monastic church of the Panagia on the island of
Leros, Greece. She truly was an “Ascetic of Love”; that is, one who engages in self denial for a higher purpose, in her case for the love of all those whom Christ sent to her.

Teachings of Mother Gabriela

Not a knowledge that you learn, but a knowledge that you suffer. That is Orthodox spirituality.

One thing is education: that we learn how to love God.

Nothing is cheaper than money.

Better hell here than in the other world.

It is not that which we say, but that which we live. It is not what we do, but what we are.

We desire our freedom. Why? In order to be slaves to our passions.

God often does not desire the act but the intention. It is enough that He sees you are willing to do His command.

When God created us, He gave us life and breathed His Spirit into us. That Spirit is Love. When we lack love, we become corpses and are altogether dead.

The spiritually advanced person is the one who arrives at a place of no identity and who has understood in his depths that whatever happens is the will of God or by the permission of God.

Only when the person stops reading other books except the Gospel does he begin to make real interior progress. Only then, united with God through the Prayer, can he hear the will of God.

Do not respond to a person with the evil he brings you, but see Christ in his heart.

Never say, "Why has this happened to me?" Or when you see someone with gangrene or cancer or blindness, don’t ask, "Why did this happen to them?" But ask God to give you the vision of the other
bank of the river. Then you will see with the angels as it is in fact: Everything is according to the plan of God. Everything!

When you have thought of criticism . . . judging others, ask God to take hold of you at that hour so that you can love that person as He loves. Then God will help you see your condition. If Christ were visible,
could you criticize?

Anxiety and worry is for those who don't have faith.

Relationship is difficult when "I" stands above "You".

We are only useful when we do not exist for ourselves, and the opposite.

If you do not reach the point of despair, you will never see the Light.

Never forget that you are His

For further reading:
“The Ascetic of Love”
by Nun Gavrilia
Sea Salt Books

- Father Edward Pehanich