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:
The info is in Greek.
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.