The Reverend Eldress Euphemia, Abbess of the Holy Monastery of Pantokrator, Corfu

Eldress Efthymia is the Abbess of the Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros in Corfu. She was born in Dialechto, Trikala, in July 1940. Her name in the world was Euterpi Kokkova, daughter of Ioannis Kokkova. She completed her elementary education under her father, who was a teacher. She completed her secondary education in the city of Trikala. She studied Classical Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Soon She was appointed as a teacher in schools in the province and in the city of Trikala.

From her student years until 1972 she worked with the Holy Metropolis of Trikki and Stagoi, mainly as a girls’ teacher. The Metropolitan, Dionysios Haralambous, had entrusted responsibility for this sector to the late Elder Aimilianos, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration at the Great Meteoro. At the end of 1972 she was transferred to the Girls’ High School of Corfu in order to be near her spiritual father Polykarpos Vagenas, Metropolitan of Corfu, and to assist in the spiritual work of the Metropolis.

In the summer of 1975, she resigned from education and in the autumn, she came to the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti to prepare for the founding of a new monastery in the Holy Metropolis of Corfu.

In January 1976 she became a nun with the name Efthymia, and in July she returned to the island and the life of her small sisterhood began, over which she presides to this day by the Grace of God.