MONASTERY OF SAINT RAFAEL

Above the small town of Thermi on the Karyes hill, stands the monastery of Saint Raphael with the single two-storey church on the island. Here are kept the remains of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, who were martyred in the hands of the Turks, and their bones were found after visions of believers.

Among the Saints and Martyrs of the Christian Faith for our Homeland, the New Blessed Saints of Lesbos, Raphael, Nicholas and Irene also have a special place. The frugality of God revealed them 500 years after their Martyrdom, and since then the miracles of the Saints, on the hill of Karyes, in Thermi, Lesvos, are countless.

This is where the Holy Monastery of Saint Raphael, which has become, since the first years of its operation, a spiritual center, a spiritual hive, of panhellenic (and not only) brilliance, thanks to the publication and circulation of the works produced by the Honorable Abbess of the Monastery, Eugenia Kleidara.

Her name is inseparably linked to the Newfounded Saints of Lesbos Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, since the will, dynamism, administrative capacity and faith of the Abbess have transformed the once dry hill of Karyes into a monastic state - a place of pilgrimage and hospitality for hundreds of Christian visitors daily.

The Abbess Eugenia Kleidara is surrounded by 45 nuns originating from Germany, Egypt, Australia, Canada, Africa, Athens, Thessaloniki, Serres, Larissa, Veria, Cyprus, Cyclades, Crete, Chios and various parts of Lesbos who harbor love and respect on her face.

Her hundred and fifty books are the capstone of her writings so far. Prose, speeches, short stories, biographies, poems, plays, studies. Out of 150 her books, the 65 show the miracles of Saint Raphael, which are told by the people who lived and live them. Many of Abbess’s books have been translated into foreign languages ​​and have been released in millions of copies in Greece and in many states of the Earth.

From everywhere come letters - confessions - that her books brought the resurrection of thousands of souls. They consoled, rested, lighted, reborn.

The Abbot Eugenia, as an excellent and enlightened educator, found the pulse of modern man and transmits the truths of our Church in the way that they will influence him and bring him close to God and the Church. It is no coincidence that many are the ones who call her in their letters “Spiritual Mother of the afflicted and tired souls”.

The aim of most of her writings is to properly educate young people, and her speech is likened to a Christian, missionary lighthouse that illuminates people's way to the Divine Approach. But her dedication of God is not imprisoned in the Monastery, but spreads far out, with the glow of her multiform love.

With the proceeds of her books, she not only builds the Monastery, but also offers large amounts to charity work. She has provided millions of drachmas for the Katsakoulio Orphanage - Foundation of Mytilene. She dowered the Foundation's orphan girls. She renovated the School of Thermi. She dowered all Orphan girls of Thermi.

She puts children through school and carries out all sorts of charity.

Besides, it took a lot of money and much effort for the conformation of the space of ​​the monastery. “When I came here, I found absolutely nothing but the lower Church and I had no place to live, it was a shapeless dry mountain. I set up a tent to stay in the day, and in the night I was hosted down in Thermi”, she notes in her book “The History of the Holy Monastery of Saint Raphael”.

Today this brilliant monastic complex consists of: the major church, the Catholic of the Holy Monastery in honor of Saint Raphael, two wings of cells for the nuns, a total of 30 cells with auxiliary spaces. A very large parlor; Two, two-storey large hostels for tired visitors arriving from everywhere; One two-floor art gallery of Greek painters; A large church of Saint Magdalene with hagiography and magnificent belfry; Also, a very large chow hall room for the needs of pilgrims; A showcase of the books of the Honorable Abbess Eugenia, and a building for the sale of her books.

A warm supporter of letters and education, she funded the renovation of the important Library of the Historical High School of Mytilene and preserved with debugging, hundreds of volumes of books of immeasurable spiritual value, that would have been totally destroyed. She also renovated the ceremonial hall of the same school and erected two Kindergartens, one in Thermi and one in Plomari.

In addition, from the proceeds of her writing work, she built a beautiful temple, Saint Theodoros of Byzantium, at the Headquarters of Mytilene, and a Church in the name of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene in Africa, Cameroon!

Many litterateurs, writers, poets, university professors, teachers, deputies, journalists visit the Holy Monastery of Saint Raphael as pilgrims, but also to meet and communicate personally with the Honorable Abbess Eugenia. And all of them are accepted by the Abbess with the natural kindness gentility that characterizes her, and her true, authentic sociability.

Many of these visitors and admirers, have written about Abbess Eugenia, books, poems, articles in newspapers and magazines, and hundreds of commendatory reviews of her personality and work. It is estimated that over 90 books have been written for her work.

Twenty scientists from foreign universities have been studying her writings and devoted significant volumes to her. The Abbess Eugenia Kleidara has received over 400 awards, medals, diplomas and all kinds of distinctions. Among other things, she has been awarded by the Harvard, Gael, Oxford and Princeton Universities.

For her work, among others, wrote the Academics: Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Aggelos Aggelopoulos, Elias Mariopoulos, Michael Stasinopoulos and the former Minister of National Education and Religious, Ioannis Varvitsiotis.

Three of her books, Iliachtides (Sunrays) (poems), Drosostalides (Dewdrops) (speeches) and The Spiritual Lesvos (study), have been approved by the Ministry of Education for Higher Education.