Page 88 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - ΣΕΠΤΕΜΒΡΙΟΣ 2022

SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION

The love of expatriate Greeks for their ancestral land is a critical denominator in
strengthening local welfare and social assistance actions.
The support of many important high-profile and less prominent Greeks residing in Greece
and abroad is of particular interest when it concerns actions that support religious
institutions with a tangible impact on their communities, in the true Christian spirit
and as taught by the Holy Fathers.
In this context, at the kind invitation of John M. Hadjipateras, the editorial team of
Naftika Chronika visited The Holy Cenobium of the Annunciation of the Mother of God in
Ormylia, Chalkidiki, and the Panagia Philanthropini Centre and found out about the mon-
astery’s history and the centre’s divinely inspired work in providing medical services
to the local community and the wider area.

PANAGIA PHILANTHROPINI SPIRITUAL & MEDICAL CENTRE:

THE MARITIME

COMMUNITY'S UNKNOWN

CONTRIBUTION

The Ormylia Monastery was founded by the Mother, and the sisters and became the monas-
blessed Elder Aimilianos in 1974. Forty young tery’s first benefactors, moved by their ascetic
women led by a 19-tear-old Reverend Mother life and devotion. They generously contributed
followed his example and became monastics. to building the medical and spiritual centre’s
Living in extreme poverty in a dilapidated ruin main structure, which was blessed and inaugu-
of a monastic establishment (metochion) that rated as the “Panagia Philanthropini Centre for
had been abandoned for over 55 years, the sis- Social Advancement, Medical Prevention and
ters, filled with joy and God’s grace, established Research” in 1984.
the Holy Cenobium of the Annunciation of the In 1990 the Panagia Philanthropini Centre began
Mother of God, commonly known as the Sacred its medical work in providing cervical cancer
Convent of the Annunciation, which today num- screening for underprivileged women. Its great
bers more than 120 Nuns. success in reaching hard-to-reach populations
From the very first years of great poverty, the and recruiting them for medical care was based
blessed Elder Aimilianos had been telling the on high-quality medical service standards and
sisters that it was necessary to build a medi- the monastic precepts of love for others and
cal and spiritual centre to care for the common hospitality. These critical factors combined
folk (‘cosmaki’) of Chalkidiki’s rural regions and resulted in the women feeling that they were not
beyond. To the sisters, who at that time had visiting a secular medical centre but their spiri-
barely enough to eat and did not have enough tual family, who loved them and cared for them
oil to light the votive lamps in the church, what and their loved ones. This bond of deep trust
the blessed Elder was asking seemed impos- is the Panagia Philanthropini Centre’s strength
sible. that continues to grow up to the present time.
Yet, in the fullness of God’s plan, the centre Given the increasing number of patients, the
came to pass according to the words of the need to further augment medical services in the
blessed Elder. The Ioannis Hadjipateras family early detection of breast cancer became pro-
came to know about the monastery through a nounced. That way, the centre would be able to
mutual friend, the attorney Mr Panagiotis Katsa- address the two major risks to women’s health.
douris. They met the blessed Elder, the Reverend In this context, the Leon Lemos Foundation

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