Father Gerasimos Fokas of Kefallonia told the following story about a priest and his wife from Cyprus:
Cyprus greatly venerates the Apostle Andrew. There is no house that does not have an Andrew or Androula. And exactly where the tip of Cyprus is, at the cape, it is written on the map as the Cape of the Apostle Andrew, and this is exactly there Saint Helen built, while traveling to Constantinople from Jerusalem, the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew.
In 1974, with the unfortunate occupation by the Turks, several thousand people were left trapped in the Karpasia region, where the Monastery is located. With the suffering, with the intimidation, the people left. 800 people remained in Karpasia, Christian people and teachers and priests also remained. Four priests remained with them. Unfortunately, the Turks continued their plan: they burned, imprisoned, intimidated, so the people were constantly leaving.
Of the four priests, one was martyred, the other two died and one remained to work in the churches, to serve the religious needs of Christians and to be in the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew - Father Zacharias. This priest was married and had four children and the Turks were slowly closing the schools because the children were leaving, and when the priest’s children reached high school, there was no more school due to the lack of students. And then the disagreement between the priest and his presbytera began.
“Don’t you see what’s happening, Father Zacharias? The Turks are not leaving here, the schools are closed, the village is deserted, everyone has left, what will become of my children?”
The poor priest tried to convince her that being a priest means self-denial and duty, but she, as a mother, saw the future of her children being destroyed. She sent the children to the free part of Nicosia so that they could study and progress and she kept complaining: “Let’s leave too.”
Cyprus greatly venerates the Apostle Andrew. There is no house that does not have an Andrew or Androula. And exactly where the tip of Cyprus is, at the cape, it is written on the map as the Cape of the Apostle Andrew, and this is exactly there Saint Helen built, while traveling to Constantinople from Jerusalem, the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew.
In 1974, with the unfortunate occupation by the Turks, several thousand people were left trapped in the Karpasia region, where the Monastery is located. With the suffering, with the intimidation, the people left. 800 people remained in Karpasia, Christian people and teachers and priests also remained. Four priests remained with them. Unfortunately, the Turks continued their plan: they burned, imprisoned, intimidated, so the people were constantly leaving.
Of the four priests, one was martyred, the other two died and one remained to work in the churches, to serve the religious needs of Christians and to be in the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew - Father Zacharias. This priest was married and had four children and the Turks were slowly closing the schools because the children were leaving, and when the priest’s children reached high school, there was no more school due to the lack of students. And then the disagreement between the priest and his presbytera began.
“Don’t you see what’s happening, Father Zacharias? The Turks are not leaving here, the schools are closed, the village is deserted, everyone has left, what will become of my children?”
The poor priest tried to convince her that being a priest means self-denial and duty, but she, as a mother, saw the future of her children being destroyed. She sent the children to the free part of Nicosia so that they could study and progress and she kept complaining: “Let’s leave too.”
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| Fr. Zacharias |
One night she says to the priest: “It can’t be done anymore, I’ll go to my children and you stay here with Saint Andrew and the Turks.”
And she even started ironing her clothes, to put them in her suitcases to leave. My brethren, at that moment, in our own era, in the 20th century, as she herself recounted it - now that the borders are opened and the Metropolitan of Morphou went to Saint Andrew's and she recounted it to him and he conveyed it to me - at that very moment the Apostle of Christ, the First-Called Andrew, appeared in a rich amount of light and said to her:
“Papadia [what a priest's wife is called], go to Nicosia, go be with your children, but please let the priest keep open my church, keep open my monastery, because if Papa-Zacharias leaves, they will turn the monastery into a stable, or a mosque, or a warehouse, as so many other churches have become.”
Listen, my brethren, to the other thing that the Apostle added. When the Bishop of Morphou heard this, he was shocked and I am also shocked to hear it: “I will send the priest to you in Nicosia, I also known about having a family, but let the priest liturgize.”
My brethren, the Saints are so condescending, so human, so close to us. And he even told her that after a few years the borders will open and so many people will go there, that there will not be enough candles for people to light at the pilgrimage site. And indeed, after five years from his appearance, the borders were opened and today, because the Apostle Andrew is the most beloved, the most popular pilgrimage site, people are lining up to venerate the Saint, to beg him to free the place and their hearts.
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It is worth adding that later Father Gerasimos himself went and met the Presbytera and Father Zacharias.
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The painting (at the top of the page) by Katerina Papapaschalis reveals the love of every Cypriot for the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew and the great appreciation for the Priest who for so many years now has stood as an unshakable rock against the wild waves of calamity for the defenders of Orthodoxy.
And she even started ironing her clothes, to put them in her suitcases to leave. My brethren, at that moment, in our own era, in the 20th century, as she herself recounted it - now that the borders are opened and the Metropolitan of Morphou went to Saint Andrew's and she recounted it to him and he conveyed it to me - at that very moment the Apostle of Christ, the First-Called Andrew, appeared in a rich amount of light and said to her:
“Papadia [what a priest's wife is called], go to Nicosia, go be with your children, but please let the priest keep open my church, keep open my monastery, because if Papa-Zacharias leaves, they will turn the monastery into a stable, or a mosque, or a warehouse, as so many other churches have become.”
Listen, my brethren, to the other thing that the Apostle added. When the Bishop of Morphou heard this, he was shocked and I am also shocked to hear it: “I will send the priest to you in Nicosia, I also known about having a family, but let the priest liturgize.”
My brethren, the Saints are so condescending, so human, so close to us. And he even told her that after a few years the borders will open and so many people will go there, that there will not be enough candles for people to light at the pilgrimage site. And indeed, after five years from his appearance, the borders were opened and today, because the Apostle Andrew is the most beloved, the most popular pilgrimage site, people are lining up to venerate the Saint, to beg him to free the place and their hearts.
....................
It is worth adding that later Father Gerasimos himself went and met the Presbytera and Father Zacharias.
....................
The painting (at the top of the page) by Katerina Papapaschalis reveals the love of every Cypriot for the Monastery of the Apostle Andrew and the great appreciation for the Priest who for so many years now has stood as an unshakable rock against the wild waves of calamity for the defenders of Orthodoxy.
