By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. "Having been made wise by grace, O divine Sophia, you practiced asceticism wisely in Kleisoura."
The Venerable and God-bearing Mother Sophia, the rag-clad yet Spirit-filled ascetic of Kleisoura, was born in Ardasia of Pontus in 1883. After following the path of the refugees, following the incursion of the Hagarenes against her homeland and the loss of her husband and child, she came to Anarrachi of Eordaia. She longed for the ascetic life, and so she built her first hermitage at the Monastery of Saint Mark in Florina, where she remained for two years.
At the urging, however, of the Most Holy Theotokos, she settled in Her monastery located in Kleisoura of Kastoria, where she struggled in a God-pleasing manner for a full forty-seven years. Without even a bed to rest her earthly body, she endured the cold of winter, sitting near the hearth in the courtyard of the monastery, opposite the south door of the katholikon, gazing at the serene image of the Theotokos above its lintel.
Living simply, clothed in rags, and sometimes even feigning foolishness, she passed through her life. Constantly engaged in the prayer of the heart, she reached the heights of deification. She attracted richly the grace of the All-Holy Spirit and was deemed worthy of both clairvoyant and healing gifts. Always cheerful and approachable, she received visitors to the monastery, teaching them repentance and goodness of character. She foresaw her end and reposed in the Lord in holiness on May 6, 1974.
Her holy relics, which were translated and emitted fragrance, are preserved in the Sacred Monastery of Kleisoura, offering healing to the faithful. She was enrolled among the saints of the Church on October 4, 2011.
2. What was it that enabled such a simple — indeed, very simple — woman to ascend in modern times to such great heights of holiness, so that through her evident gifts, the fragrance of her relics, her clairvoyance, and her wonderworking, she was officially inscribed among the saints of the Church?
Was it her extreme asceticism, surpassing even that of many great ascetics and hermits? For both her Synaxarion and her Service, composed by the well-known and eminent hymnographer Haralambos Bousias, indeed emphasize in many ways her great asceticism — so much so that even hearing or reading of it makes us grow faint and afraid. Already in her Apolytikion it is noted:
“You pleased Christ, most venerable Sophia, through prayer, sleeping on the ground, many deprivations, hardships, fastings, and vigils.”
Was it her practice of feigned foolishness — pretending to be simple-minded and sometimes saying and doing things that appeared foolish or mad?
Was it the fact that she endured not only hardships, but also the pain of losing her husband and child?
Or perhaps that, dwelling in the monastery and having gained a reputation for holiness, the faithful came to her and she instructed them, teaching patience and the virtues? “Have much patience!” was her constant exhortation.
None of these — rather, it was all of them, when viewed under the light of her inner, heartfelt condition: that within her she was a temple of God, offering unceasing doxologies and hymns to her Lord and God.
“You made your heart, wondrous Sophia, a most splendid temple of God” (Ode 6).
For without understanding her as a temple of God, all the above could “sound” even non-Christian. Harsh asceticism, for example, exists — even more extreme — outside Christianity. Feigned foolishness, without the foundation of holy humility, is considered “a deception of the devil.” Endurance of hardship and loss can be found even among unbelievers. And instruction of pilgrims may be an expression of hidden vanity.
Therefore, Saint Sophia was a dwelling-place of the Lord, whose brilliance the modest Hymnographer reveals in many hymns, especially in the Doxastikon of Vespers:
“Having the fear of God in your heart, the fear that grants true wisdom to people, you directed your steps to the fulfillment of the divine commandments, O Sophia, pure vessel of God’s choosing. For having loved above all the Lord and your neighbor as yourself, you labored for the sake of the Lord whom you beheld noetically each day, striving to please Him in word and deed. And since you pleased both God and men through your asceticism and the consolation of your words, you were counted worthy of the eternal joy of the heavens, which may He grant also to us who bless you.”
If Venerable Sophia was sanctified — though unlearned in worldly education yet supremely wise in the things of God — it was because she truly believed in Christ and turned wholly toward Him with longing and love. And she expressed this love in the only way the Lord teaches: by keeping His holy commandments, especially through humility and love for her fellow human beings — and this without interruption: “she beheld the Lord daily.”
The same truth of her holiness can be expressed another way: Sophia was always ready in obedience to the will of the Lord; that is, through the grace of God she had acquired His phronema — the phronema of the Theotokos and of all the saints. As the Apostle Paul expresses it uniquely:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being God, became man and humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (cf. Philippians 2:5–8).
The wise Hymnographer of the Saint praises her humble phronema, highlighting her Abraham-like obedience:
“O all-praised Sophia, radiant model of humility, you left the Monastery of Saint Mark in Florina, hastening to fulfill the all-holy command of the Lady of Heaven, and thus you came to the glorious fold of Kleisoura” (Vespers Sticheron).
Sophia of Kleisoura: the overturning of worldly logic and mentality, the “emulator of the great holy women of the past” (Lity), the extension of the Crucified Lord, and our powerful intercessor in the heavens.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.