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Thursday, October 29, 2020

The Case of a Greek Orthodox Nun Who Experienced A Terrifying Poltergeist in 1933

 

 
One of the strangest mental phenomenas is the mysterious stoning of houses and the unexplained movement of objects, which usually are investigated by the Police, without being able to discover anything at all.

In the past decades, in Athens in particular, similar mysterious incidents had occurred many times, which had given rise to the President of the Society for Psychical Research, Angelos Tanagras, to intervene, for example in Kallithea, Piraeus and elsewhere.

However, despite all the simple explanations given by psychophysiologists, these phenomena, whenever they occurred, always worried people to the greatest extent, as was the case in 1933, with the strange phenomena that took place in a nun's house in Agia Barbara.

The humble house, in which these unorthodox events were observed, was located very close to the Church of Saint Barbara, on the ground floor and consisted of three rooms in total, which were built in the middle of the plot, surrounded by a yard.

In this house lived for several years a young nun, Theonymphi Kokori from Lesvos, just 26 years old, who told amazing stories to the Commander of the Police Station Pyritidopoieiou.

In October 1933, the young nun appeared terrified and almost insane from her fear to the Police Chief Mr. Dritsa and began to tell him about the mysterious incidents, which, according to her, caused the evil spirits of Hell to rage in her house for about twenty days in an outrageous way!

The phenomena used to take place one hour before midnight and lasted throughout the night, most of the time. Sometimes, again, they would stop for a few minutes and start again more terribly.

Initially, stones of various sizes fell on the roof and windows of the nun's house. In fact, large rocks were thrown, which were considered impossible to be thrown by a man from a long distance, but also small pebbles, which sometimes fell so thick that they made the sound of the raindrops on the glass. The phenomenon stopped abruptly and a little later, it was repeated more severely.

The nun Theonymphi, in these cases, in order to react to the demonic forces, as she claimed, resorted to the protection of an icon of the Panagia, which she had in her house and which she considered to have the grace to silence and appease the mysterious spirits. So she prayed before the icon and if she saw that the evil spirits did not stop and that the stoning was still unabated, then the nun grabbed the icon, hugged it and hid under her bed, from where she watched with trembling the terrifying continuation of the shocking phenomena.

As soon as the wild stone-throwing stopped, loud knocks were heard on the door of her room, while on the roof the tiles were moving, which the next day were always in place. In addition, the evil spirits of the Devil, as the nun Theonymphi called them, began to growl and cry loudly, while at the same time imitating the voice of an infant, who cried out loud!

As if all this creepiness were not enough, the spirits unleashed piercing, very sharp cries, while violent sawing was heard over the door of her room. She was lying on the floor, paralyzed by terror and doing her cross reverently.

When everything stopped and peace and quiet prevailed again, she either found her door intact, or discovered traces of deep scratches.

The explanation that could be given was threefold. Either they were unconscious pranksters, who intended to have fun at the expense of the trustworthy young nun.

Or it was about telekinetic phenomena, as suggested by the President of the Society for Psychical Research, Angelos Tanagras. If this were the case, then either the young nun or another person, who may have been near her home at the time of the incident, would be a telekinetic psychic. That is, to have such mental properties that, without realizing it, she moves objects that are at a distance and with which she did not come into contact.

Or, finally, that Theonymphi was a psychopath and imagined everything she was protesting, when in fact it never happened.

The news of this incident was published in the newspaper "ACROPOLIS", on 10/21/1933.