Penteli, Greece, October 8, 2019
Photo: romfea.gr
The Holy Archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church has announced that Gerontissa Styliani, the elderly abbess of the Holy Pantocrator Monastery in Penteli, just outside of Athens, reposed in the Lord early this morning, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
The beloved abbess was 86 years old.
Photo: romfea.gr
His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, who was close to Gerontissa, was informed of her repose at 4:00 AM this morning and went immediately to the monastery where he served a Trisagion for the repose of her soul.
Photo: romfea.gr
Mother Styliani’s body is in the old catholicon today and will be taken in procession to the new catholicon tomorrow, where the Divine Liturgy will be served, and later her funeral will be served by Abp. Ieronymos.
Gerontissa Styliani (Karatzogiannis) was born on September 14, 1933 in Neochori, Greece. She joined the Monastery of the Presentation of the Lord in Kalamata, under Elder Joel Giannakopoulos in 1954 when she was 21; she joined the Monastery of St. Patapios in Loutraki four years later. She became a riassaphore nun on Palm Sunday, 1959.
On March 9, 1963, she and several other nuns from the Monastery of St. Patapios were sent to live at the Holy Monastery of the Pantocrator in Penteli, in the Archdiocese of Athens. Mother Styliani was tonsured into the Great Schema there on the feast of Theophany in 1969.
The abbess reposed in September 1974, and on October 15, 1974, Mother Styliani was chosen to take her place. She was enthroned by the primate of the Greek Church, His Beatitude Archbishop Seraphim of Athens and All Greece.
The monastery underwent great spiritual growth during her abbacy. A large sisterhood of young nuns was formed, and the monastery was renovated and rebuilt from the ground up.
