Gerontissa Photinia.

***Help from nuns/lay women only!****

Gerontissa Photinia.

Mother Photinia from the monastery of St. Paraskevi in Corfu will receive Orthodox Christians (women/nuns only) who want to help revive the monastery of Corfu Island ... With these words, the modern citizen imagines a quiet, azure-turquoise sea with swirling foaming waves, a warm sandy beach and, of course, the many attractions that you can visit on this well-known island of Greece, literally awash with tourists in the summer.

Here, on the top of the island’s mountains, in the wilderness of the semi-wild ever-green nature, Mother Photinia, abbess of the monastery named after St. Paraskeva, leads a solitary life full of overwork and hardship. For the fourth year now, with the blessing of Elder Ephraim and the local bishop, Mother has been struggling to restore an abandoned and ruined monastery with a history of some 100 years. Having no income, praying Jesus prayer, mother - while the only inhabitant of the monastery - relies only on God and the help of good people. The extraordinary life of Mother Photini, in the world of Christina Marshall. Christina was born and raised in a wealthy family in Paris. Never needing anything, she received an excellent philological and mathematical education. Already in the early student years, her soul was drawn to God and monasticism. It was then that she began to sing in the church choir, and at the age of 23, feeling in her heart a strong desire to devote her life to God, she left everything and went to the monastery, leaving the capital. Since then many years have passed, full of temptations, spiritual trials and joys, prayer and physical labors.

Six years ago, mother Photinia moved to a nunnery in Corfu, and two years later, having received a blessing from her elder for a silent life, she went to the wasteland of St. Paraskevi and began work on the restoration of the monastery, which was in poor condition. To date, mother Photinia has completed the restoration of the abbess and sister's home, in which she has equipped several cells and a house church with her own hands. With the help of two workers, the refectory and the cell for the sisters were completed, the construction of the priest’s house is ongoing, and church restoration is planned.

The routine of the mother’s day is not easy: according to the charter of Mt. Athos Elder Joseph Hesychast, the cell rule begins at 1.30 in the morning with prayer rule on the komboskini in the cell, at 4 in the morning - the service in the temple; and from 9 in the morning begins hard physical labor at a construction site. Together with one or two working mothers, the abbess sometimes has to carry stones, heavy buckets of sand and water, knead cement, prepare materials and tools for workers. After the workers leave and a short rest, mother prays with a komboskini, and then engages in the translation of spiritual literature. This activity is almost the only source of meager income. At night, intensified prayer. Mother hardly takes more than four hours to sleep.

Translations of patristic literature were dealt with in many monasteries. The writings of the Monk Neil of Sora, translations of St. Paisius Velichkovsky and St. Theophan the Recluse are widely known in Russia. Translation activities are an integral part of the monastic life of Mother Photini: she is engaged in translating Orthodox literature from Russian, English and Greek into French (translated “Letters of the Abbess of Taisia”, “Instructions of the Valaam Elder Nazaria”, “Life and Miracles of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker "), Translates from Russian and French ¬ French into English and Greek, from Greek into Russian and English. Now mother continues to work on the translation of the letters of the elder Paisius Svyatogorets into French.

In the possession of the monastery and in the care of mother Photinia is an olive grove with 800 trees. Vast monastic grounds, summer haymaking, the autumn-winter season of picking olives, harvesting brushwood for heating the premises - overwhelming labor for mother. The Lord Himself teaches her to constantly rely on God's help and the prayers of her elder ...

Mother will also gratefully receive Orthodox Christians in her monastery who want to help revive the monastery with their own hands without pay. Those seriously interested can write to Mother Photinia at: gerondissafotini@yahoo.com