Neomartyr Catherine Routti
Mandra, Attica. A place that was connected with heroic but also tragic events. A place that in our materialistic times offered one more heroine of our Faith, the young neomartyr Catherine Con. Routti.
It is known to all Christians that entire rivers of blood were poured in order to strengthen the genuine faith in Christ. But also in order to preserve it well from the effect of heretical innovations, martyric blood may once again required to be poured.
Come now Christians, you who patiently bear the scorn of many and the Old Calendarists' name, come all together so that we may get acquainted with how the fathers and our brothers, who lived during the first years of the schism, fought and glorified the GOC Church giving us the possibility, freely and honourably, of living and worshipping our God.
Let us follow therefore how the grievous events of Mandra developed, namely how they began and how they evolved into a tragedy after the all night festive church service in honor of the Holy Taxiarchae Angels at the Church in Mandra which bears their name, at daybreak of 8 November 1927.
From the eve of the feast, pious women of Mandra, together with the bold defender of the Tradition of the Fathers, Catherine (Routti), tidied up the Church, in order that their feast, which they awaited with such great longing, would not be lacking in anything. In time they had also taken action to obtain a priest of the same belief. At that time there were very few priests and consequently sought-after. For that purpose, a committee had set out for Athens and early in the evening was already returning by horse-drawn carriage, accompanying the ever-memorable confessor priest Fr. Christophoros Psallidas. The reception that occurred for the coming priest was enthusiastic. Almost all the residents welcomed him cheerfully, while the bells of the entire Church struck joyfully. Such was the love and respect of the first fighters for the same believing priests.
The Vespers began quietly and peacefully. The vigil would have continued and also would have finished quietly in the same way if it were not for the unwelcomed ones who made their appearance for that evening, law enforcement agents, encircling the Church with bad intentions. And legitimately arises the question: But why this siege? In the Church there were no outlaws. It was not hiding robbers. Only worthy observers of the Tradition of the Fathers had assembled in order to glorify with honor their protector Saints. What therefore were the agents looking for with such insistence? Very simply their intention was to execute the order of the schismatic archbishop of Athens, to arrest the priest and disband the crowd at the feast.
The agents may have received commands, but also the Christians of Mandra should have performed their God-given commands and they should not have allowed the least disturbance of the Feast. Thus the doors of the Church were closed and the church service continued with more devout concentration. It is because it came under the threat of arms. The agents strike with fury. They strike wherever they are able to. Doors, windows, walls! They break window-panes! And it is the 20th century. Civilization is advancing. And supposedly the individual and religious rights are freely practised! What terrible truth! And indeed we find ourselves on the holy ground of Orthodox Christian Greece.
The faithful pray in the Church quietly and piously.
Outside, the agents of the schismatics rage, howl and shout obscenities.
Inside, the faithful ask the Lord to strengthen them so that they may endure their unjust persecution. Also, outside the agents ask for reinforcements in order to achieve their sacrilegious aim. These reinforcements were indeed necessary! How would they arrest a mild and harmless priest? How would they face the defenseless faithful?
Day break approaches. Most of the people in in the Church have received Holy Communion and they wait for the priest's "By the prayers..." and after they receive his blessing, they will lead him to a nearby house so that he may rest. But how would that happen, when outside the soldiers of the schismatics were biding their time? But they just had received received internal strength from Christ! Nothing frightens them. They advance fearlessly. The doors open. The faithful begin to come out. The pious women of Mandra encircled the endangered priest and formed a living wall around him. Out of the darkness the agents of the schismatics pop up in front of them like wild beasts. They demand from them to hand over the priest. One wonders why. This is the justified question of the faithful. Did he commit a crime, did he steal something, or did he desecrate something? No! None of these things! However they're asking for him! And therefore? Who will deliver him? There is no Judas here!
Only if you pass over our bodies will you take our priest! is heard a strong and steadfast female voice. It is the 27 year old Catherine Routti who left her home, husband, and children and came to defend the priest. The frightful weapons do not frighten her and, determined, she shouts.
The police forces cannot split the human ring. They then begin to shoot in order to scare them - with some success. Enough of the faithful distance themselves, but the living wall around the priest remains fearless. Soon however even this gives way because of the inhuman and wild attack of the agents, during which a bullet strikes the temple of the ever-memorable confessor Aggeliki Katsarelli.
Confessor Aggeliki KatsarelliHowever Catherine Routti, in the spirit of defence, does not admit defeat. She censures the schismatics with boldness until an agent raises the butt of his gun in order to hit the priest!
And then, All-Highest God, such boldness, such self-sacrifice!
As soon as Catherine notices the gesture of the criminal, she hurries to save the priest, covering him with her body, therefore she receives that mortal blow in the back part of her head. Catherine falls in the floor of the Church dyeing it with her martyric blood, while for the last time she is heard whispering:
My Panagia!
With anguish and sobs the women raise her blood-stained body and as the husband was being notified, they transport her to the "Evangelismos" of Athens, together with the wounded confessor Aggeliki Katsarelli, who is released after a few days.
Catherine, who for seven days remained motionless, suffered unimaginably and could not even speak. With signs she asked for a pencil and paper in order to write with difficulty to her husband to take care of her angels, her two children, one of which was four years old and the other a few months.
On 15 November 1927 on the Old Calendar, the first day of the fast of Christmas and at 4 in the morning, she delivered her martyric soul into the hands of the crown-bestowing Christ.
The then Administrative Council of the Holy Community of G.O.C. Athens, mobilized all of her annexes, so that as many of the faithful as possible might attend her funeral.
Surviving witnesses of the funeral informed us that what they attended that day was not a funeral but a holy Litany of martyric relics. Thousands of faithful accompanied the procession, some holding flowers, others candles and others palms.
The martyr no longer has the need for our own temporary honors and glories. The honor that one should grant her is the one that Saint Chrysostom indicates to us: "Honor of martyr, Imitation of martyr ".
Take heart therefore, Christians, and model yourselves after the young mother of 27 years, who poured her blood for our Holy Faith. The neomartyr Catherine, constitutes "honor and glory and boast" for the Church of Genuine Orthodox Christians and will be presented, in every circumstance, as a model of faith, love, and self sacrifice for the Patristic Traditions.
Catherine! Our times did not allocate gallows, furnaces, swords. It allocated the butt of a gun in order to scare you. Such a cheap gun indeed, in order to make you forsake a living Faith! However you gave your life for this faith. May your entreaties strengthen us and your prayers protect the Body of the Orthodox Church from every "wily moving" hostile arrow. Amen.
Source: Τα Πάτρια
