Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

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Maria
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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by Maria »

Isaakos wrote:

So, it turns out that the State Church Archbishop of Greece, Spyridon, told Met. Chrysostom they needed the monastery at Keratea destroyed in order to destroy the GOC. Met Chrysostom agreed.

on page 175 of his book, ..Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane," the famous old Calendarist historian, Mr. Stawos Karamitsos, (whose writings are used by both the Holy Synod and Florinites alike) gives the following account regarding the events of 1951 involving the New Calendarist "Archbishop" Spyridon Vlachos (the most fierce persecutor of the Genuine Orthodox Christians) and Chrysostom, the former Metropolitan of Florina: "At the time that Spyridon Wachos was elevqted to the Archdiocesan throne (of the State Church), ... many issues that needed quick solutions (including the calendqr issue) were discussed. For this reason, (Spyridon Vtachos) visited the former (Metropolitan) of Florina, with whom he shared a brotherly friendship, and told him the following:

'Chrysostom, our Church has made a prince. We must take care to dissolve the Monastery of Keratea. And afterwards, we ourselves shall Find a solution to the Old Calendarist issue, in accordqnce with the Divine and Sacred Canons of the Church.."

Mr. S. Karamitsos then continues: "The holy former (Metropolitan) of Ftorina, and the Synod under him, believed in Archbishop Spyridon's words, in that the latter was really interested in the unity of the faith and the observance of the Sacred Canons, and that he desires to dissolve the faction of the ("Matthewite") Bishops, urged by godly zeal for the Divine and Sacred Canons'.."

So basically the destruction of the monastery was planned by the Florinites and the New Calendarists acting together.

That Mother Mariam, the abbess, was unjustly imprisoned under false charges to gain control of her monastery is evident. The Freemasons who ran the Greek Government were known to bring false charges against all True Orthodox. Even Met. Chrysostomos of Florina was imprisoned many times for his Old Calendar beliefs. Unfortunately, he capitulated to the wishes of Met. Spyridon and cooperated in the State Church's attempt to gain possession of the Keratea Monastery. Thankfully and providentially, the monastery today remains within the GOC. If those charges were found to be true, then the public would have been outraged, and the State could have taken immediate possession. That did not happen. Praise the Lord.

NOTE: this thread has been moved from Traditional Orthodox to Monasticism.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by jgress »

Maria wrote:
Jean-Serge wrote:

I seldom heard about Mother Mariam and recently read about her from a website that seems run by a World Orthodox person who reported things from the newspapers of this period. It appears she was accused of and condemned for : stealing the property of some person with fraud but also mistreatment (hitting, starving etc) against people staying at Keratea, some of them dying. I guess this will be a new angle of attack against Matthewites, so I suggest them to gather the complete information about this period to clarify the situation for people like me who never heard about this. What do we know about the trial of this time, about the accusers, the trial etc.

Jean-Serge, please do not quote from this unofficial New Calendar laity blog where you got this information or from any laity-run gossip blogs in the ROCOR-A.

That particular New Calendarist blog is one of hundreds of disinformation blogs run by members of the Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL), who continue to persecute not only the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece (GOC), but also all the monasteries run by Elder Ephrem of Mt. Athos. They remain very anti-monastic and anti-Traditional. Most of the leadership and membership in OCL are Freemasons, and their hatred of True Orthodoxy, the Old Calendar, fasting regulations, and monasticism is very evident. In their sponsorship and heavy financial support of SCOBA and now the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, they remain very influential within the Greek Archdiocese of North America under Archbishop Demetrios and friends of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

While the OCL had their official blog open to the public about ten years ago, I perused it and found a lot of anti-monasticism and disinformation. Their official blog was then closed to the general public and is only open to members with various degrees of membership, much like masonic lodges. In other words, OCL has an official site, which you can read, but you cannot go beyond the general membership information to subscribe to it. When I last looked, only paid members can open the other areas.

Members of the OCL are encouraged to have numerous blogs of disinformation. Blogs are personal websites, which no one can rely upon as official news information outlets.

It's not clear what blog you're talking about. Could you provide the name of it? Also, could you please substantiate your accusation that the OCL are Freemasons? Thank you.

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

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Here is the OCL blog.

http://ocl.org/orthodox-christian-laity/our-mission/

I personally know some of the OCL members and they are freemasons as they were open about their lodge membership and proudly wore rings and lapel pins.

Notice the quote on the blog page:

  • Our Mission

    I saw the largest and best part of the Orthodox Church in the Diaspora, and I understood how exalted the name of Orthodoxy could be, especially in the Unted Sates of America, if more than two million Orthodox people there were united into one church organization, an American Orthodox Church.
    Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios IV (January 1922)

Met. Meletios was given a freemason funeral. It was he who unilaterally imposed the New Calendar while serving as EP.

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by Maria »

Because the GOC, of which Abbess Marian was a member, is totally laity supported, the laity are given a vote as to who is elected a bishop and what course the church takes. Both clergy and laity have jobs to support the church and her hierarchy.

If Abbess Mariam, of blessed memory, was in any way guilty of those charges, then the laity and clergy would have demanded her immediate removal as Abbess. In addition, the laity and clergy would have stopped supporting her Monastery. That did not happen as the GOC faithful knew her personally, benefited from her spiritual advice, and loved her as a living saint. This is why the Monastery exists today under the GOC.

The State Church under Spyridon had state-supported clergy and monastics.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by Isaakos »

Jean-Serge wrote:

I seldom heard about Mother Mariam and recently read about her from a website that seems run by a World Orthodox person who reported things from the newspapers of this period. It appears she was accused of and condemned for : stealing the property of some person with fraud but also mistreatment (hitting, starving etc) against people staying at Keratea, some of them dying. I guess this will be a new angle of attack against Matthewites, so I suggest them to gather the complete information about this period to clarify the situation for people like me who never heard about this. What do we know about the trial of this time, about the accusers, the trial etc.

What we do know has been mostly covered above, but the problem is twofold:

  1. The info is in Greek.

  2. The Press intentionally did all they could to defame the Abbess.

Here is a synopsis of what I believe happened based on what we know for sure:

It is a fact that when Hieromonk Matthew began the construction of the Monastery at Keratea in 1927, the new calendarists would interfere in the construction. They had convoys interrupting the delivery of materials and such, etc. From the beginning they opposed this convent, if you have seen color photos of it, it's gorgeous.

It is another fact that abbess Miriam was specifically selected by Hieromonk Matthew to be the Abbess based on her personal obedience. For example, the story I have been able to find out about her is this: She and several other pious Greek girls were Father Matthew's spiritual children and disciples. He was essentially training them to be Nuns. But he wanted to decide who the spiritual mother would be, so he devised a test: He called the girls to him and said, "I would like a drink of water." They all insisted to get the drink, but Miriam insisted the most. So he said, "But I want it from the well in the next town over." She still insisted on going. He then told her to approach him. He took her scarf from her hair, let her hair down, and had her take of her shoes and he smudged her face with soot from the fireplace. She immediately dashed off like a madwoman carrying a jug. He then told the sisters, "When she returns, she will be your spiritual mother. Keep the water she brings you for it will work wonders, for it is the water of obedience."

So we see that Miriam from the beginning was devoted to unconditional obedience. In addition I have spoken to the priests who know the much older nuns at Keratea, the 90 year olds who remember Miriam from their youth. They said, "There was only one Miriam." In other words, she was not hypocritical. And "She would daily pray for God to give her the strength to endure the false accusations and torments she knew were coming." She was imprisoned in 1950 and died in the prison and they received her body back in 1954 shortly after her death. When her body was washed and examined, the arms and other parts were found to be full of needles that had been broken off into the body. She had been tortured for her faith and died as a confessor. Archbishop Matthew actually told her this would happen. From The Life of St. Matthew the new Confessor, at the list of miracles at the end we read:

"In 1932, St. Matthew prophesied that Mother Mariam would be jailed and martyred for the Orthodox
faith. In 1950, after the repose of Saint Matthew, Mother Mariam was in fact imprisoned and martyred
for her adherence to the Genuine Orthodox Church."

We also know, from Fr. Stephen Frasers book, that the Archbishop of Athens, Spyridon was complicit with Met. Chrysostomos of Florina in attempting to destroy the Monastery. This is quoted in the first posts. They could not have the monastery of Keratea and were envious.

Now here is where the fact and the fiction blend together:

Greece, 1950. There is terrible poverty from the wars that were fought and the Nazi occupation of Greece. Food was extremely hard to get and sickness was everywhere. The persecuted Old Calendarists were living in the caves outside the Keratea monastery in the foothills. Many families turned their children over to the monastery in order to provide them with food. Many of them stayed and became nuns at a young age, like 11 or 12. This sounds shocking, but really was not uncommon. Archbishop Matthew himself had entered the monastery in Crete at the age of 12, and we can see that it would probably be natural for people who were imbued in Orthodoxy. Now, the Nuns were not all mothers, nor was it fair to expect them to be. That children were at the monastery and living there with the nuns as nuns there is no doubt, you can see them in the photographs of the monastery dressed like nuns and monks. But like I said, food was scarce. Disease like tuberculosis couldn't be readily treated, so undoubtedly there were people dying at the monastery, but there were also people dying in worse conditions. Now, according to Metropolitan Anthony, who I asked about this specific issue, he said that what had happened was that some unfaithful laity had given false testimony. Think of the conditions, is this really so far-fetched? They were probably promised a substantial ration of food and adequate accommodation. He also said some "Other Old Calendarists" who were unfaithful had decided to aid the New calendarists in their defamation of the Monastery. But it was all lies. We know it was because even after her death, there are photographs of the bishops standing beside the body of the abbess Miriam. Her funeral attracted hundreds. It seems counter intuitive if these were the actions of a depraved female Rasputin, but I won't lean to heavily on that argument, human psychology being what it is.

But I think that when you add up the facts, That the New Calendarists were trying to halt the construction of the Monastery from day 1, that Archbishop Matthew Prophesied her death as a martyr, that the "Archbishop" of Athens clearly wanted to destroy the monastery, that the circumstances at the time were one of plague and hardship and hunger for everyone, And that newspapers are what they are (Some nuns reported that the Newspaper men told them they would change the story for a sum of money), I think it just turns out to be slander. It just doesn't add up, and the picture that begins to emerge is a tragic one where well meaning people were taken advantage of by malevolent people, who seized upon the hardships of a particular region and exploited it and colored it to become more than it actually was.

Blessed is the man who has volunteered to hold and keep until the end of his life our holy Orthodox faith, the faith of the one Church of Christ and our mother, the Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Archbishop Matthew Karpathakis

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by Jean-Serge »

Thank you. I had suspicions regarding the reports from the newspapers of the period and the trial of this period. So, people would have tortured her with needles in prison! Do we know where these needles were? Under the skin, did she have wounds?

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Re: Abbess MARIAM (+1954)

Post by Isaakos »

From what I have read the nuns went to wash her and I am guessing they were found partially protruding broken off in the muscle tissue.

I can look for the link...

The story of How Marina was chosen to be the Abbess Miriam is here:

http://churchsynaxarion.blogspot.gr/201 ... e.html?m=1

The google translate is not very good, but the essence is definitely conveyed.

And here is the other link. It is readable in good translate. The first date mentioned is wrong, it says 1964 it should be 1954.

http://eggolpio.blogspot.com/2015/01/bl ... 7.html?m=1

Blessed is the man who has volunteered to hold and keep until the end of his life our holy Orthodox faith, the faith of the one Church of Christ and our mother, the Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Archbishop Matthew Karpathakis

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