“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord by arti…that they may rest from their labours, for their works follow them” (Rev. n. 13).
With deep emotion we bid farewell to a holy soul on May 23 on the journey of eternity! Monk Thecla, the Missionary, the Mother of the Children of Africa.
He was born in Anchialos, Thessaloniki in 1947, in a blessed Christian family and was nurtured with the seeds of orthodoxy as he had relatives who were monks on Mount Athos. In 1970, at a very young age, she was made a monk by the blessed Metropolitan John of Sidirokastro and Archim. Damianos Mavridis.
All of us who lived close to Nun Thecla and ministered in Africa and Greece remember her divine form! The humility and simplicity of her character, her piety, her selflessness and charity, her piety and asceticism, her sweet voice and her blue eyes, which had time to look and foresee every need, especially for her “little children”!
She interceded with exemplary devotion and sacrificial spirit for the children of Africa, the children of God, her “own children” for 35 years as a mother, as a sister and as a deacon of love!
She was a bearer of the ministerial ethos of Orthodoxy, of its philanthropy and charity, experiencing and expressing in practice faith in God and love for her neighbour, for the “brother”, “for whom Christ died” (1 Corinthians 8:11). At the core of the spirituality of Nun Thecla belonged the absolute trust in divine grace, which always healed the sick and made up for what was lacking.
The late Monk Thekla served the Patriarchate of Alexandria for 40 years, once in Ethiopia with Archimandrite Archimandrite Thekla. Damianos Mavridis and for the last 15 years in Tanzania near me with prudence, obedience, bravery, courage and rare self-denial.
She was distinguished for her devotion to the Church. As a deacon of all, she never sought honours and in her bond of love with the people of God, she served all people with charity, without distinction of race, religion or origin. Everyone remembers her to this day as “Mother Thecla”, a skilled catechist, an excellent chaplain, a helper of the mourners, and a genuine spiritual Mother. Even our non-religious Muslim or pagan fellow citizens in Tanzania called her “Mamma Tekla”! It was this love and humility of hers that also led hundreds of souls of mostly orphaned children to Orthodoxy!
May Her memory be eternal and Her virtues be an example for all of us. Amen! Christ is risen!
✝ Demetrios of Irinople
