All the food we have in the monasteries, at least 80%, comes from the gardens that we grow ourselves. Tomatoes, eggplants, eggplants, watermelons, melons, potatoes, onions, lettuce, all the greens, cabbages, cauliflowers and so on. A few things we buy from outside. Spaghetti, canned goods… We get that from outside. The rest of what is possible, and can be grown and produced in the monastery and in the monastery gardens, is done there. But there, these gardens are not cultivated by us alone. Two three fathers are deaconesses, but they also have St. Tryphon as their main assistant and protector. Well, he’s their assistant. He’s the protector, he’s the guide. And we don’t say that just to say that. It’s a fact.We have too many testimonies, too many miracles. With the miraculous intervention of St. Tryphon, then, helping and assisting the brothers, the ministers, the gardeners who succeed in growing all these things. Without St. Tryphon’s help we could do nothing. And now and in the past we have many testimonies. All the monasteries have relics of St. Tryphon. All the monasteries have chapel, chapel, and especially in the gardens, in honor of St. Tryphon and celebrate him solemnly. They honor him with big bells, as we say on Mount Athos, with praise, with the pouring of wine and oil. No fish, if it happens to be a Wednesday, we don’t eat fish, only wine and oil. And we have many testimonies when there is some problem in the garden from some disease, from some attack, from some insects, from locusts and so on. The fathers would take and take the relic of the Saint. They do a procession through the garden, they do the consecration by reading the blessings. The little holy water reading the blessings of St. Tryphon, sprinkle with this holy water. And the problem is directly eliminated and treated.

The Virgin Mary, which is kept in our monastery, has taken the name of Gerontissa from a miracle, which was connected with the person of the then elderly abbot, who had reached the end of his life and wanted the parish priest to hasten the Divine Liturgy in order to receive the Blessed Sacrament. He was not to leave without receiving communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. But the vicar was delayed. He was going at a slow pace, with a disposition of not obeying the elder, while he had begged him to hasten the Mass. And so Our Lady herself had to intervene and called out to the vicar and told him to shorten the Mass so that the old man could have time to receive communion. And so it was done. He shortened the Mass. Thus the voice of the Elder, who is kept behind the altar, is heard. And indeed the Elder did commune and subsequently fell asleep, and so he was connected to the Elder.

 

Since then, many miracles have been performed, in addition to this miracle, by Our Lady the Elder. When, at one time around 1700, the monastery ran out of oil, and indeed the shortage was so great that they did not even have enough to light the candles, the patience of the fathers was so exhausted that they began to leave the monastery. The abbot of that time, who was a virtuous man, urged them to be patient and “the Virgin Mary will not abandon us,” he told them. And indeed Our Lady did not contradict this faith and hope of the abbot. But one morning when the Diaconate and Diochairman in charge, as they call him on the mount¨, or the Housekeeper, went out of the diochium-the diochium being the place where the oils and various other foodstuffs were kept-he saw oil running through the door and he rejected it. He says, “There is no oil in the monastery even for the candles, and oil running in the courtyard? What is going on?” So he opened it, together with the abbot. They went into the vessel and saw one of the jars, which is still preserved to this day, literally boiling with oil and pouring out of it. And from there, out into the courtyard they saw it, which the steward saw. They took from it the oil as it was boiling, as it was pouring out so, and they filled all the empty jars of the monastery, and as soon as they filled the jars of the monastery, it stopped pouring out oil as well. And of course, this was an intervention of Our Lady of the Elderly, because right above this particular jar was the icon of Our Lady of the Elderly. A copy of Our Lady of the Elderly.

 

Of course, it has a second name, that of the “Ellevrytissa the Elder”, because she performed this miracle with the oil. From there. After this miracle we have many, many incidents with oil, with her intervention. Miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary. when in 1945 someone had loaded oil to cover weapons underneath, which he was carrying for the war. He lost his bearings. The sea guided him and brought him to the port of the monastery. At that time the monastery had no oil at all. In fact, on the eve it is reported that the steward reported to the abbot, “there is no oil”. “Tomorrow is the first of the month when we must give the kubania to the fathers.” Because the monastery was peculiar, they gave a bottle of oil each to keep everyone going throughout the month, along with other things they gave.It was such an order in the monastery of the same order. The then peculiar monastery, and the previous one says to him “well you prepared the situation over there in the vessel, to give the fathers oil.” “we don’t have any”. But you prepared to have everything clean, you have the bottles and these all ready. And indeed he did so, obedience. So the next day, morning – morning they see, a captain comes from a ship below. He approaches down to the harbor and he was shouting to the fathers. “We have oil do you want us to give it to you?” And indeed they took the oil and they say to him, “well how did you come, how did you bring us this oil?” And they say this and this happened. “We lost our way without understanding. The boat came alone and approached here. We tried to leave and we couldn’t get out of here and we understood that it was probably God’s will that we leave the oil here with you.” And so they left it!
And so many more miracles!