This is the story of Stella, a little old lady, unknown by most people around her, who lived her life as free as a sparrow, but entirely devoted to God.
On the 3rd of June 2005 our beloved Stella was killed in a car accident.
She bore all the signs of a "fool for Christ", with an inner life of spirituality.
It was her will to remain homeless; she lived on the streets; at nights - in summer and in winter - she slept on park benches, in hovels and in the waiting rooms of Hospitals, but she was always filled with a love for God, for the Saints and for unfortunate people. Her clothes were always clean. Whatever earnings she had, she would dedicate to the requirements of charity. She did not like to be praised, and when they did praise her, she would act «silly»...
She came from Constantinople; she had acquired a good education; she handled the Greek language extremely well, and she was also familiar with the French language, and lately was also trying to learn Italian.
Her departure from this life was exactly as she had desired it: with a violent death, and as a stranger among strangers. Nobody had gone to identify her. They interred her without a funeral service, because they didn't know who she was. But all this missing information became known in a miraculous manner a year later; that was also when her funeral service was performed. I was honoured to perform her memorial service also. After her memorial service, in the guest hall of the Holy Monastery of Pelaghia, Mrs. Militsa Pisimisi-Loukidou, a lawyer, and Mrs. Chrysoula Mandas, a dentist, narrated all they knew about Stella, who was truly a person of God.
In this issue, we are publishing the text by Mrs. Militsa Pisimisi-Loukidou, which was written in collaboration with Mrs. Chrysoula Mandas also, outlining only a portion of her blessed life, while in the next issue we shall be publishing the remembrances of Stella - «God's little sparrow» - by the Monastic community of the Sacred Monastery of Pelaghia, who was unknown to the world but certainly well known by God - who had lived «alone, with only God». It is my belief that this narration will be beneficial to those people who live their lives seeking unbridled bliss, laden with a neurotic mentality and constantly complaining about the things they would have liked to possess.
The following words of Christ were applicable in her case: «Observe the fowl of the sky, how they neither sow nor reap nor collect in barns, and how your heavenly Father sustains them; are you not far different than them? » (Matthew 6:26).
Finally, Man «is» not what he «has»; he «has» what he «is».
The ever-memorable Stella, whom I was exceptionally blessed to meet, is a positive protest for all those who are «insured».
+ Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlassios, Hierotheos
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