Her parents Spyridon Drivas and Theodora were among the wealthiest of the village and had three boys.
Lambrini was the youngest, and her brothers and sisters adored her for her character, her morals, and her very good behavior toward everyone.
He grew up with Christian principles. From an early age, she learned to love people and to live according to God's word. She only finished elementary school and read the Bible and other spiritual books with desire.
She narrated:
I was eight years old and I was sitting in a little chair in the yard of the house. I was holding a small Bible, got caught up in the excitement, and loved reading it.
I had read the passage: "Whosoever hath left house, or brethren, or brethren, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred and tenfold, and shall inherit life eternal." (Matt. ix-29).
So it entered my heart and I loved the Lord very much. From that moment the desire to follow the solitary life was kindled and I thought: I don't want anything, no fields, no property, I'll go to be a nun.
Then suddenly there appeared in front of me a man dressed in priestly vestments and I liked his appearance very much, he was very beautiful. I looked at him with admiration.
He said to me:
- What do you admire me for? And your little hands I made them and you're beautiful like me.
- My mother gave birth to me and she's in the kitchen. Shall I call her?
- No, I want you, and he grabbed my hair. Who made these?
- Yes, he told me. Now what are you going to do, what life are you going to lead?
- This book ignited my desire for my great God I want to enjoy Him. May He work for me and I for Him.
- You will grow up, My child, and you too will work for Me.
- Who are you?
- The one you said, he told me. If you want it that way, you'll eat bread and garlic on Wednesdays and Fridays. You're a good boy, but I have other good boys. It'll come one day and gather up all these good boys.
Then he disappeared...
He began after that to strive more, to fast, to pray, and to prepare himself to be consecrated to God. Her spiritual director was Fr.
She said, "From a young age I wanted to be a nun. When I was seventeen years old I went to the monastery and told the Elder that I wanted to become a nun.
He told me:
'Come, my little child. The next day my parents came screaming to take me away. The Abbot, seeing them so angry, gave me away, telling me to grow up a little and then I would come back.
They took me and in a few days, they started the matchmaking. I was negative and found excuses." Then they asked me what I wanted and I said, "I will pray all night and whatever God tells me."
THE NATIVE LIFE IS EQUIVALENT TO THE
OF THE SINGLE LIFE?
I prayed and said, "God, I ask one thing of you. Please permit me to take the Heavenly (bride) and I too, as good souls take. That I may not marry an earthly man."
I heard a voice:
"We have you in mind. One hour you will be ours. But you must be joined to this one to grow stronger. Put reins on the mouth, feet, hands, flesh."
- In the flesh? To marriage you send me.
- I send you, and the flesh is blessed. You will have trials...
I continued to pray for the best, to become a nun, but he told me that "the best thing for you is to get married, to be tested, to be baked. If you go to the monastery, you will not suffer so much. In the monastery, whatever others do, you will do, whether they eat or pray.
But in the world, you'll find evil, wickedness. We are finished now, take strength and enlightenment and work as much as you can."
I worked all my life. I struggled. My in-laws then didn't want me, they sent me away, and they called me obscene names. What the voice, the Spirit, told me, I found it all." So, after the age of 20, she was married to Aristides Vecchio from Kolomodia Artis and they had two children, Spyros and Stathoula.
Her life was not easy at all in her husband's family, because thirteen people were living together in the same house and everyone had their idiosyncrasies and their way of thinking. Her father-in-law in particular treated her in a bad way, with contempt and cruelty, hurting her with his words.
Lambrini, however, managed to overcome everything with patience. To his curses, she said: "Call me whatever you want. I'm dumb." And from her husband she had difficulties.
Once when she was at a vigil at St. Fanurion in the neighboring village of Glykorizo, she heard a voice saying: "Right now your house is burning..."
When the vigil was over and she and the other women returned on foot, she saw her books burnt and thrown outside the house and her husband in a frantic state shouting at her to leave the house.
Lambrini replied, "I am not leaving. You are my husband, this is my house, kill me, do what you want with me, I am not leaving."
At night he locked her out of the house. She calmly persisted and said: "The temptation puts him, it will pass. He is good, but in the café, he was 'turned on' by this one, and he did what he did until the anger passed."
Despite the many difficulties and the arduous agricultural work, he did not leave a second of the day without praying and thanking God. In the field where she went to work, she also took spiritual books with her to read and pray. Throughout her life, she was spoiled by many using four books of Great Hours. The books were her property, as she said, and from their study, she received much strength.
After she had her two children, she and her husband lived like brothers. He slept at night and Lambrini read her books by the light of a candle and a candle.
TERRIBLE FASTS...
Throughout her life, she had been a monophasic and dry eater. She usually ate bread and olives. On the third day (the fortieth) she ate and drank nothing. She took communion on Ash Wednesday and then continued the perfect fast...
On days when he didn't eat anything he drank a teaspoon of hot water around 3 p.m. Her usual food was a potato boiled in vinegar. Her children pressed her to eat, but she would refuse and answer: "Don't worry, I will not die from fasting, prayer is my food. I will take care of the body because it is the dwelling place of my soul. When the time comes, I will eat. Do not worry."
Her daughter made her coffee in the morning and in the afternoon when she went to pick up the dishwasher, it was untouched. At Easter when they all sat down to eat, Lambrini talked about God and after pressure, she ate a spoonful of yogurt or a forkful of salad:
"Today is the biggest celebration. Today Christ is risen. If a dead child of mine came, would I eat? I would decorate my house to welcome him."
For the last twenty years of her life, she ate only bread, water, and vinegar.
One day she was going to go to Athens for a week because her brother was going to have an operation. An acquaintance baked her cornbread and gave her a slice. She accepted it with great joy because she knew that this woman carved the cross on the bread. When she returned from Athens she thanked the woman who gave her the bread and confided to her that this bread was her food for the whole week she spent in Athens. I ate a little bit every day and the Lord would come and eat it for me."
Before her death, for a time she was content with only a spoonful of holy water, the communion table, and, of course, Holy Communion. To someone who asked her what she had eaten, she replied that she had eaten only the hors d'oeuvre she had kept from the Divine Liturgy, that with it she was full and would keep her full for another day or two.
After marrying her children, at the age of 45, she gave up farming and devoted herself to exercise and prayer; her life was now one of constant prayer at home and in church, where she regularly went and took communion...
Her daily routine was something like this:
He slept up to two hours a day from 3 to 4.30 at night. She did kneeling rosary and long penances. She did all the services every day. She read the Midnight Mass and the Orthros by the dim light of the candle and with a candle. He studied the Bible and patristic books a lot. During the day, he read, did the Liturgy of the Hours, and prayer. To those who admired her where she could and devoted her days to reading, she would say that there is time for everyone.
And a page a day to read is enough, as long as it is done in faith.
She did all this with the blessing of her spiritual director, Fr. During Lent, she made the Great Dinner, and when someone interrupted her, she did not continue but began again from the beginning...
When there was a vigil in a Church she was always first. Usually, she was followed by women from the surrounding villages. Many nights she would gather the women together in her house and they would pray together.
From the age of 30, she sewed a hair bag and wore it on her stomach all her life, for exercise and malnutrition. No one knew. For 54 years she wore it and never washed it. Before she died, she instructed her daughter never to wash it. Those who have seen it testify that it looks like it came out of a washing machine and smells (smells).
Although she lived in the world, her desire for Monasticism and the Church made her turn her room into a monastic cell. Any piece of paper she could find that had a picture of a saint on it stuck on the wall, creating a special atmosphere.
She didn't love money, she was unmercenary. All she cared about was being able to give alms and help people. She gave away her entire pension in handouts.
When her children also gave her money, she also allocated it to help the poor. She told her children: "This money I give is not mine. It is caught (accounted) to you because it is yours."
She even avoided grabbing the money with her hands but with a napkin or a piece of cloth. And when she went shopping she would open the purse or napkin and the grocer would take it himself. From her house, she would sneak out at night, so as not to be seen, and she would go to poor houses, leave whatever she had outside the door and go away.
The baker had been ordered to supply bread to a poor family, without
anyone knowing anything. She told her daughter only before she went to sleep, and left her a legacy to continue the alms-giving. Lambrini advised:
"Great blessing has the man who gives alms. When you give alms, you will not give what is to be thrown away, but you will give the best for the stranger and the poor. Parents should not be distressed that they have no property to leave to their children but should see to their progress according to God, and God will take care of the rest."
She visited the sick without fear of hindering anything, since many times the sick (dying) person would receive communion first and then she would immediately receive it, because she was not afraid of death, on the contrary, she thought that it would bring her closer to God.
Once she went to worship St. Spyridon in Corfu with a child she had baptized, without any money. But with God's help, they went and returned, without being asked for money either on the bus or on the boat.
Grandma Lambrini loved Christ, struggled more than a nun, prayed constantly, and communicated divine grace. Many went to see her, consult her, and ask for her prayer.
Whole buses stopped at her poor house. She accepted all the people without complaint, often without a single interruption during the day.
Visits to her home were daily. There were no hours. Everyone came when they wanted and left when they wanted. She received everyone with open arms. When she was alone she read or prayed. To stretch her legs she would go out and take a walk, not in the village, but in the garden with the orange trees, and say the prayer (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me).
Her speech was always about patience. She said: "We Christians will go through great trials here, even within our own family. We will have to show patience, love, and give alms." To those who had family problems, he pleaded with them not to break up their family. "Temptation tempts you," he would say.
To young people who visited her she gave advice: "Have you decided to get married? You will be patient, and not one, but many. Go to church regularly, confess, take communion, and pray. When you do these things, you will draw near to Christ to rejoice forever."
Although he had not studied, he read many spiritual books and understood and explained them.
Literate people - even university professors - went to listen to Grandma Lambrini. They held her in special reverence because her life was given to Christ, but also because they saw divine grace working miraculous works through her.
Many times her mind was seized and she saw the unseen mysteries of the age to come, her prayer was answered, she knew the hiding places of men, and she foresaw events of the future.
AN ANGEL FINDS A SON-IN-LAW FOR HER CHILD!
Grandma Lambrini told the story: "My daughter Stathoula had passed her eighteenth birthday and it was time to get married. The matchmaking began, but the grooms did not rest easy. They were well-to-do, good people, but with rotten purity. In those days the bride had not so much say in the choice of the groom, and because I had the care of the groom, I wanted him first of all to be pure, chaste. Stathula did not incline a nun, as I had, and a groom had to be found."
One night when I went to bed to sleep, I went to read a book as usual, and I was sad because the groom was not there. My husband was sleeping separately so I wouldn't disturb him.
As soon as my husband had fallen asleep, he opened the window by himself, and my guardian angel came in. He took my spirit. In my bed, my body was left half dead. We walked - we walked without knowing where we were going. We reached Preveza. He says to me: "Don't stop at all. We want to go to Lefkada." I didn't know where Lefkada was.
We arrived on the island and went to a house by the front door.
The Angel tells me:
You sit here and I'll open the door. Look inside...
He opened the door of the house and I saw a young man standing, in a suit, his back turned. He then turned to close the door, for it seemed to him that it opened itself, and I saw him from the front. The Angel was a spirit, and I was in the courtyard, and he did not see us.
- Do you like him as a son-in-law for your daughter?
- He's good, but we're far away.
- He's an angel, like me.
- Will my daughter get an angel? She's human, how will she get an angel? (But he meant his purity.)
- From now on you will not make another match for your daughter no matter what others say, you will wait a few years because of some difficulties, but I will bring you the groom alone and he will find your daughter...
We started the return in the same way. Three years passed and my daughter and son went to a candy store. That's where the groom was. As soon as he saw her he came and asked her to marry him. I knew he was the one God wanted. We accepted him and I praised God for His greatness.
Another time, as she recounted, the Virgin Mary showed her hell and heaven: "In 1982 I was in the cave of Agia Paraskevi at Channopoulos'. I was praying in the cave with other women and I thought: "Ah, cave, where could I find you if only this cave were mine..."
-"No, no," said a voice. Your cave is the Virgin's.
-Where is this cave?
-I will find it for you, but after a long time.
It took five years for the time to come. I've been looking for it all this time. I'd hear about a cave and take a woman for company and go. In the evening when I came home and prayed I heard a voice: "Not that one, my child. You are tired of nothing."
One day my cousin invited me to Arta for work. There she talked about a cave she was going to the next day with other women. I decided to go. We set off at five in the morning on foot.
Once we arrived the cave was not visible from the outside except for two holes where you could fit in wedges. Near the entrance to the cave, there was a chapel. I had taken candles and candles with me. I wondered: "I wonder if this is the cave." And I heard a voice: "I'm in here. Hold a candle to enter the cave."
To get away from the women I said I was tired and I would sit down and rest for a while.
As soon as they entered the Chapel, I lit the candle and went into the cave.
It was a big cave. Inside I saw the Virgin Mary clearly, I bent down and worshipped her. Then I forgot everything, I wanted to stay there forever for the rest of my life. I kept worshipping the Virgin and she said to me:
- That's enough. You'll see a lot in here, you'll see the other world. What you will see is a confession to the people who love them. If you see indifference, you'll say nothing. You'll show indifference to the women outside when you go out. If they ask you, you'll say I went to pray in the cave. But now come out at once because they're asking for you. Then avoid them in a manner and go back in and we'll continue. I will prepare them inwardly to accept whatever you tell them.
I went out and reassured them because they were looking for me and shouting. My face had changed from the encounter with the Virgin Mary, they understood and they were telling me: "Why are you like this? What's wrong with you?"
I excused myself for being a little scared in the darkness of the cave and turned pale. I told them that I would go back into the cave to pray and they accepted it. I lit the candle and went back in. The Virgin Mary was waiting for me and said: "Do not be afraid now. The women will be waiting for you, and when they see you they will say: Praise be to God."
I WENT TO HELL AND HEAVEN...
Then the Virgin Mary took me to a plain as big as Arta. I came to two roads, and I asked which one to choose. "Whomever you wish," said the Virgin.
I took it one way. As I walked along I saw feasts, weddings, androgynous loved ones, children, and I thought "What a beautiful world this is!"
--Ah, the Virgin Mary did. So the people are fooled in the underworld, the wicked...
When I heard this I didn't want to go on but the Virgin Mary said: "We will go ahead and do not be afraid." So I took courage and went ahead.
We met a river of fire whose waves fell on three of my people and they cried out...
The Virgin Mary told me: "Don't worry. Do not worry. Did they listen to you when you said something to them? I do them well every year and get them out of there from Resurrection to Pentecost."
Further on I saw a river of tar that was boiling. And sleepers were coming in and out of it...
But their clothes were clean, they didn't get dirty, even though they were rolling in the tar. But what do you want it for? They burn in the tar. They can't stand the burn.
Then I found myself in a big barrel and was called by name by a soul inside who was in torment. He was trying to get out and begged me to wet my little finger to cool his mouth a little. I knew him by voice and said to him:
- Are you in there, boy? Is that what you've worked for in life? Don't you remember out there by the Comforter in Arta, you came back from the market and I from my church and you made fun of me because I believe in these things, in hell and heaven, and you said that when a man dies, he goes like a sheep, he is lost? And I told you a lot about hell and heaven, don't you remember?
- I remember them, but it's too late now. Cry out while you can, while you're alive, for someone to come near you, to avoid this hell.
- What can he do near me if I don't know? How many times did you make fun of me when I met you?
- No, you didn't eat, you didn't change, you didn't dress, you didn't party, you fought and you know...
For me, (Lambrini was saying), after that, my soul hurt him. I was sensitive to the pain of others and, if I heard that someone was hungry, I would not eat and if I could, I would bring him food. But now I was thinking of giving him some water with my finger or not.
The Virgin Mary told me that if I gave it, she would burn half of my arm up to the shoulder. When I heard this I shortened my legs, but I felt sorry for the man in there. I then begged the Virgin Mary to wet it and give it a little. What can I tell you? You'll burn your hand. If you want it so much, put some on it, but I will be on your side."
-- "Yes I do, she's a soul too. I might get the same thing."
"No shit," she said.
I hit him then, and my hand got burned. It hurt, I blew on it, but nothing. I haven't worked the finger since then, it's been hard. And if you cut it, I can't feel it...
"What you have seen here should not consume you in sorrow, but put all your strength into telling it to others living and helping souls who long for Heaven."
Leaving, the Virgin Mary said:
"Blessed be you until the Second Coming when my Son comes", and we left.
Then we went to the good world. That's where you were happy to be. I met a lot of them. I met a lot of couples who lived happily ever after. She wanted to show me others, but I said, "No young people because it makes me sad to see young people die."
Our Lady said to me "Not young, but old, because good people die old. The others we take young so that they may be saved from the sins they will fall into."
We met an elderly couple. Our Lady said to me, "Now their son is coming, he is traveling." He had just died and his soul was ascending. Then the old man got up and prayed to the Crucified One who was standing nearby and said:
"Thank you, God, for taking my son at a mature age and bringing him here." The old woman thanked him too. "Amen," came from the Cross. The old man and the old woman sat down again in their golden chairs, all of them were golden. In front of them on a little table, they each had a plate to eat on.
I thought, "What are they eating?" And they answered me: "What you bring us in the scouting we eat." Their food was one like the counter meal and wine. Their beds were all gold, beautiful.
For virgins, there was another special place, the virgin house. There I saw people I knew there, but they didn't talk to me.
Then the Virgin Mary told me: "We will leave now and go over to see a man who came here after a long illness. He was a great sinner, but he was washed away from his illness. He endured his sickness agelessly. His bed, of course, was not like the others but was weary from the labors he endured.
He then said to me, "Yes, it is as our mother (Panagia) says. I have dissolved in my bed, I have shed all my blood on this bed. What I went through only the bed this is known to my mother who guarded me and stood at my headboard.
Then the Virgin Mary continued: All the people come here. Let them hurt a little on Earth.
On earth, there are many temptations. Only keep your soul from sins. Whoever sacrifices himself for my Son will enjoy all these good things. Those who work for me down on earth will go to heaven. These goods are a joy to whoever enjoys them. But now few come. The world is broken..."
Lambrine once foretold the death of her niece:
"I had received a warning (information) that on Wednesday my niece Kassiani would fall asleep. She visited me last Saturday afternoon and told me that she had agreed with the priest to have Mass next Wednesday and invited me to help.
I was blessed by the Bishop to sing in the pulpit when there was a need. I say to her, "Not on Wednesday, but on Monday." She insisted on Wednesday because she was committed to the priest and could not change it.
To make it easier for her I then went and changed it. The Mass was celebrated, we were prepared and we took communion.
Kassian looked healthy. She thanked me for helping at the Mass and we said goodbye.
On Wednesday morning Kassiani was called by her brother Nikos to go to the clinic because his wife Olga was about to give birth and he wanted to have someone next to him. Kassiani went, but immediately after the birth Kassiani suffered a pulmonary edema and fell asleep after a while...
That's why I'm telling you, we don't know when we're going to die.
HOW THE SOULS ARE HEAVY IN THE OTHER WORLD...
For the little girl from the other world: Once the following happened, as she told it:
"It was the 30th day since the death of a 7-year-old girl I knew.
In the evening, as usual, I got to read a spiritual book and sat on the bed, while my husband was already asleep next to me.
Then an Angel came in through the window and brought my little girl, who I knew, dressed in her nude. I asked her what she wanted again in this sinful world and she answered:
"I came for you. I couldn't find a person to voice my complaint. My parents were forcing me to eat to get well, while I didn't miss food. God wanted to take me. But now that I'm dead, I should go to heaven, but I have obstacles.
One is due to my parents, and one is due to me. Now that I'm dead, I still haven't gone to bed and my mother got pregnant. That wasn't supposed to happen. My soul is still on the road, I haven't gone through all the dots. I know they cried a lot, but it shouldn't have happened. They think they're somehow going to raise me but tell them they're having a boy, not a girl as they think...
This act of theirs makes my soul difficult...
As for me, the last time I went to school before I died, I didn't have a pencil or a slate to write with. But a classmate of mine gave me a new plate and pencil, which I didn't return. Tell my mother to buy new ones and return them. For the great good you will do my soul I will take you now with me to see the chamber the Lord has prepared for us virgins. We have married Christ."
We went out of the window and up. We were accompanied by Angelos, holding the daughter's hand. We reached Paradise and saw it. There were many houses but very nice.
We reached the maiden house, but she wouldn't let me in. She came in and said to me: "You are still on earth you cannot enter here." But I saw the virgins through the window, some young and some old. They wore shining clothes.
I was told: "We here never have winter, never night, never rain. We are always in bloom."
Then a signal was sounded and it was time for prayer and we had to leave. I wanted to stay and learn how they prayed, and he said: "You have the priests, the spiritualists, and they tell you everything."
The Angel turned me back without speaking to me. I could see my body lying on the bed next to my husband, breathing a little, barely alive. I got back into my body, put the book on the table, and went back to sleep. In the morning we were going to go to the field to work on the bamboo but I couldn't go. For three days I felt very tired and pale.
When I had asked the little girl: "Well, for a plate and a pencil you have so much trouble? With us who have done so much, what will happen?" She replied:
"This plate and pencil are like a hundred-pound weight as I am weighed down by the sin of my parents." Therefore we must owe nothing on loan in this life if we are to enjoy the good things of heaven."
WHAT TIME DO CHURCHES FILL UP WITH
ANGELS...
In the Divine Liturgy and when he was taking communion he had experiences and he confided some of them as follows: "All that we offer in the Scouting, wines, candles and the names, are taken by Angels and taken upstairs. Once I went to St. Catherine's.
They were having a commemoration (saint's Day) there and I gave my little paper with the names. The morning after the Mass was over, I saw the slip of paper on the ground in the sanctuary in front. I was sad and said: 'Oh, my God, Saint Catherine, I came here and my name was not read'.
At night in my sleep, a young beauty (Saint Catherine) came to me and said: "Were you afraid, my child, lest the names were not read? I read them, even if the priest did not read them."
In her hands, she held a piece of paper. She showed it to me. I saw that it was the paper where I had written the names and had given it to the priest to remember them in the Scouting.
"When our Mass starts in the morning, everything is very nice there.
But when the time of transmission comes, then the whole Church is full of angelic spirits. Now I see them like lightning. Angels pass by with their wings, their faces beautiful, as we are human beings. They are high, and we are low. The priest shouts this way, the cantor that way, and they all come out there and curl (circle) the priest around.
Then the broadcast comes out, you see in the Beautiful Gate, Christ intact, you see the priest saying "In fear...". He says: "Here I am" and he points to the Holy Chalice, that is, that he is inside. We are then really taking meat from the Body of the Lord. In the Holy Chalice is Him. He becomes all so much like a little child with a little head, little hands, little feet, a whole Christ, that is, a man, and He gives it to me, He gives it to you and the other one, with the spoon (Holy Handle). The spoon has a little man in it."
How do you get this thing? And we were taking it something sinful, spoiled, overworked, evil people, murderers, killing each other and burying each other.
When you go to take a metaphor, you will go with your head bowed and you will think Who will you find in front of you? Who you're going to see now? Don't look at this one and that one and what this one and that one are doing. You will look only at the Holy Chalice. Who is in the Holy Chalice? There is Christ Himself showing you, that's not the priest, that little thing is given by Christ.
He notices who can take it. Whoever is not worthy of it, he does not give it.
Do you think they're all broadcasting at that hour? They're not. He who is ready gets it. And at the time you go to communion, you have to see Christ. You don't have to see him, but you have to put your mind to it. Then comes the "Bidding" and you see everyone leaving the church before the "Bidding". Take a moment to get the blessing.
Then you should not return (visit) a stranger's house, because you will lose the wish. It is not good to go out, to go, I know, to the market. And if it's an urgent need, tell someone where he's going to the market to buy for you. And if you do go out, just keep your head down, do your job, and go home.
"To receive communion we must prepare ourselves a week or so of fasting and other things."
Grandma Lambrini was sincere in her prayer. People in their difficulties would ask her to pray and then see the results. One of her cousins was dying and would not give up his spirit (he was dying). She was tormented because while it seemed he was dying, he would come back again. His wife went and asked the grandmother to go to the patient to pray. He hesitated because he thought she would die. She finally went and talked with him, he was good but drank. She told him to confess and then while the grandmother prayed, he quietly surrendered his soul.
Her grandchild, five years old, was sick. Twice they had taken him to Russia and were preparing to go a third time to operate on him again. Grandma Lambrini did not want them to go because she knew that even if she lived, she would not get well. The last night she went to her cell and broke out in prayer with tears, pleading with God: "Take it to Your throne in Heaven instead of Russia. This is an angel. And there claim me too, O God, that my grandchild may rise from the throne and take me too."
She heard the "yes" to her prayer and then thanked Christ. By three after midnight, the child was finished. She wept for joy and took the flour to knead offerings.
Grandma Lambrini during her lifetime never forgot her lonely desire. So after the death of her husband, she decides to realize her dream.
At the age of about 70, she went to a local monastery, where, according to the rule set by the elder, she was to stay 50 days for Easter, 40 for Christmas, and 15 for 15 August. She then asked to stay permanently at the convent, but in the meantime the old man fell asleep and the nuns objected to her stay. Again Grandma Lambrini with obedience - patience accepted this decision and peacefully returned to her home, where she continued her struggles and was now preparing for her death.
EXTERNAL GOOD EVIDENCE...
Mr Andreas Nikolaou from Kalomodia Arta notes:
"My parents and especially my grandmother, from a very young age, talked to me about Grandma Lambrini and her gifts. Especially my grandmother would follow her everywhere she went to any churches and they would walk for hours until they arrived. I didn't pay much attention to what I heard, about her endless hours of prayer, her minimal hours of sleep (two hours a day), her gifts.
I respected her as the old lady she was, but as I grew older I found that she gladly submitted to long and hard trials (fasts and vigils). I watched her face light up every time she entered the Church.
When she met me after Mass, she would lovingly pat me on the head and I felt then that I was not treading on the earth. This made me seek to be with her.
"One summer when I had finished the first grade of primary school, Grandma Lambrini and other women went and opened the Church of the Archangels in the village of Loutrotopos in
Artis. My mother and I went with them and we slept in the Church at night. It was night and grandmother was chanting something from a book.
I got up and walked back into the Church which was lit by a few candles lit.
Then I opened the door of the sanctuary, went in, walked two or three steps towards the altar, and immediately stopped. I heard the footsteps of a man approaching me. I noticed two or three shadows around the altar coming towards me and surrounding me.
I was frightened and immediately went out of the sanctuary. Seeing me, my mother, who was looking for me,
scolded me.
Then Grandma Lambrini said to her: "Don't scold the child. This is a small and sinless child. If you only knew what angelic forces have surrounded him!"
I realized then that Grandma Lambrini saw the same things as I did, even though she was outside the Sanctuary. I have since realized that Grandma Lambrini is not like other people.
When I later came of age and Grandma had passed her eightieth year, I once found her at the fountain in the yard and before I greeted her I noticed that, as she was bent over, her hump had grown. I had not had time to take a step and then Grandma, as if reading my mind, raised her head and said to me:
"You see, little child, how I have become from too much reading, all day long bent over books with much prayer and repentance to the Lord, that I may get a little place in the house of the Lord."
She was distinguished by great humility. She was saying: "I am nothing. A poor and illiterate peasant woman." And while she was poorly educated, she conversed with educated people with great ease. She would talk for ten minutes and say things that others couldn't say for hours...
Our professor, the theologian, tried for half an hour to explain to us what a miracle is and in the end, we didn't understand many things. Grandma when I asked her answered:
It's very simple. "What is impossible for man is possible for God."
Once upon a time, television showed the churches in occupied Cyprus, where the Turks turned them into stables and warehouses. I asked Grandma what the Lord says about this. She seemed distressed and replied:
"Since the Turks turned the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, the Virgin Mary has left the inside and is standing outside by the door crying. She cries all the time because they took her house away. If you could see the Virgin Mary crying, you would have many days of sleep." After pondering for a while, she said to me, "You should see what will happen to Turkey in a little while." Indeed, in a few months, the well-known earthquakes occurred.
I asked her if there were other people in Greece with the same gift. "Yes, there are, because our religion is alive.
There is someone among all of us whom the Lord has set very high. He is sitting near the border with Albania. I have been there five or six times and last week I was there.
And while she was saying this she was beaming with joy. He was talking about things that were going to happen in the future. He said:
"You'll see things you can't imagine. You will see great waves as big as a two-story house destroying towns and villages, and few will be saved." Indeed, two months after her death we had the famous tsunami with thousands of dead (in Asia). "You will see children going on a school field trip and Satan comes out with a scythe and takes their heads off." Indeed the well-known accident with the Macedonian children happened with so many victims.
He was telling me: "I cannot reveal more to you because I am sinning. The Lord gives me permission for what I tell you."
"On September 7, 2002, I visited her and she showed up waiting for me. She said to me: "In a few days I will leave this life. You don't know how much joy I am looking forward to this moment". She gave me some advice, such as fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, not working on holidays, going to vigil as much as I can, and much more. Then he told me: When you need me, come to my grave. That will be my home now. You will ask for my help to intercede for the Lord. I will ask you to help me to help you.
GET OUT OF HER BODY!
Mrs. Vasiliki Tzourmana from Kommeno Arta testifies:
"I heard in a Church of Arta for the first time discussing Lambrini and her spiritual gifts and I felt a great desire to get to know her. With a relative of mine who knew her, we went to her poor little house. From then on, for about forty years until she passed away, I almost always followed her on pilgrimages, on vigils, at services she performed in churches and we slept through those nights.
Aunt Lambrine prayed and read for many hours and slept very little.
I once asked for her help. My husband was playing cards and neglecting the house. We had reached an impasse. "Fear not," she said to me, "the Lord Jesus Christ will take care of everything if only you will show faith in the Lord."
He asked me for forty days to wake up at 3 a.m. and pray for forty days, and to pray 40 penances. She had given me some prayers to read and told me that she would also pray for the Lord to help us. "Indeed I did as Aunt Lambrini told me in secret from my husband and after the forty days suddenly everything changed.
My husband never played cards again, he was busy with the farms and the family and
our finances improved.
Once Aunt Lambrini and other women and I slept in a Church. After finishing her prayers she lay down to sleep. I couldn't fall asleep. I could hear Aunt Lambrini while she was sleeping she was making some sighs as if she was working and was very tired.
That lasted for a while. I got up and took hold of her hands and feet. It was as if I was holding a dead man...
I realized that again Aunt Lambrini had spiritually left her body. In the morning hours, I heard her again as if she was panting. "Now she must have returned," I thought. As soon as she woke up I asked her: "Did you leave in the evening? Where did you go?" She gave me the following answer: "I took her (a woman who was in our company) and presented her to the Lord."
One time I had a big problem. I stayed in bed for six months with severe pains in my back. I couldn't move and I went from doctor to doctor, but my condition got worse. One day Aunt Lambrini visited me at my home.
"Don't worry," he said, "you'll be completely well in a little while." On the same day an acquaintance of mine informed me that Aunt Lambrini, before coming to my house, went to the Church of my village, and kneeling for a long time she prayed before the icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, to which the Church is dedicated. In a few days with the help of a doctor, I was walking normally. From then until today for 18 years, I have not had the slightest discomfort.
And after her passing, in difficult moments of my life, I call on her and she always helps me. I had headaches and dizziness one summer that may have been caused by the heat waves.
I lay down to sleep after asking for her help. She came to my sleep, stood over me, and covered me with a sheet. In the morning when I got up I was in good health."
Mrs Maria Dragataki from Arta states:
"I learned a lot from Grandma Lambrini by going with her to the countless vigils and pilgrimages she organized. She called me "my child" and this word touched my soul. She was patient and listened to my problems and always found solutions.
Her life was holy and she was very humble. What shall I remember first? Her help to my mother? The predictions and prayers she made for my children? Or the great good she did for me? When I lost sleep after a heavy surgery, feeling desperate and lost, I went to her house at midnight asking for help and found her on her knees praying, drenched in sweat, and surrounded by lit candles and candles. She said to me: "My child, what has happened to you tonight?" By crossing myself I have since calmed down. May she be well where Grandma Lambrine is and may she intercede for all of us?"
A.W. states:
"I knew Grandma Lambrini from a young age because she would come to our house and see my grandmother who was in bed, but I thought she was an illiterate grandmother. I heard others speak of her with reverence and when I returned from my first pilgrimage to Mount Athos in 2002, I went to see her and give her a blessing. Entering her cell I felt as if I was standing in front of a giant. I realized then, without knowing how, that this woman was very high spiritually, so much so that I could not gaze upon her, even though physically she was petite.
The conversation with her was an intellectual feast. At that time, the issue of identities was dominant and I was intensely preoccupied with it. The first conversation she said to me, without mentioning anything about it, was: "We shouldn't get the ID cards by engraving..."
In my subsequent visits until her passing, I found that she had the gift of foresight and insight.
She reported to me events unknown according to human reason, sometimes events concerning my future that took place, and others about more general matters. And sometimes while I had in mind to ask a question or a question would arise in a conversation in the presence of other people, she would stop the conversation, answer the question I was thinking about and continue the conversation.
In May 2002 when I saw her she told me that in a few months, she would be leaving. But when she saw that I was very sad, she said: "Well, that's what I say, months - years." But she did indeed go to sleep in a few months, in October 2002, and her soul went to the Lord that she had so longed for since she was a little girl."
On the last Sunday she went to church she shared and read the Eucharist at her home. On Monday she spread all the books on her bed, read a little of each one, crossed them, embraced them, and set them aside. She would bid them farewell, for so many years they had been her best companion. On Tuesday afternoon she invited her daughter to make a Supplication. Finishing she said: "Thank you, Holy Mary, for giving me this Supplication too. For I have many more prayers to make before Thursday."
Asked by her daughter what she would do on Thursday, she replied, "I'll go to where I worked if I worked well..."
On Wednesday morning she asked to see her grandchildren. "Tomorrow I'm leaving," she said.
In the evening she said to a niece: "Now I'm going away. You go and tell Stathula yourself so that she won't give her a bad name. I was begging God to let me live until Stathula matures and understands what the other life is."
At some point, she sat up in bed, opened her arms, and said to
those present: "Come now, all together, let us go to Jerusalem."
She hugged them all, then crossed her chest, and the headrest and lay down. Then Stathoula took the others out and together with her husband they lit a candle and read the prayers, just as her mother Lambrini had instructed her to do. When they finished the prayers, they heard a slight shush and Lambrini Vetsiou passed away like a little bird on Thursday, October 17, 2002.
Many people pass by and worship at her tomb. They pray and draw strength. Someone who consulted her during her lifetime was very sad because her husband was going to have a serious heart operation. After they had venerated her grave and prayed, she saw in her sleep Grandma Lambrini who said to her:
"Don't worry. Your husband will be fine. Just before you go to the hospital, you'll make a binder and take it to the church. He did indeed make the brochure and everything went well.
That was Lambrini Vetsiou. A practitioner with long fasts, daily vigils, with constant study and prayer. She loved Christ, she talked about Him constantly and every cell in her body gave up Christ. She helped people with the grace she had. She saw from this life Heaven and Hell. While she was praying, Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other Saints would sometimes come and talk to her.
He knew the future and said that very difficult years awaited us. He took pity on the little children and said: "If they only knew what they would go through"!. But he immediately added:
"God has; He will save for Christians."
More, she said, Christ would not let her say ...
Eternal be the memory of...
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