Saint Gabrielia Papagiannis

St. Gabrielia was born in Constantinople in 1897. In 1923 her family moved to Thessaloniki. In 1938 she went to England and stayed there throughout the Second World War. In 1945 she returned to Greece where she worked with the Friends Refugee Mission and the American Farm School in Thessaloniki. Later she opened her own therapy office in Athens until 1954. She left Greece and traveled to India where she worked with the poors for 5 years. In 1959 she went to the Monastery of Sts. Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun and stayed there for 3 years. In 1963 she returned to Greece and was tonsured to the Small Schema and immediately she left again for India. Between 1967 and 1977 she traveled in East Africa, Europe, and USA. In 1977 she lived hidden in a little apartment in Athens. In 1989 she moved to Holy Protection Hermitage in Aegina, close to the shrine of St. Nektarius. For the final time in her life she moved to Leros and established the hesychastarion of the Holy Archangels. There she received the Great Schema. She passed away in 1992.