She was the second woman to be admitted to a Greek university and was a trained physiotherapist prior to taking up her religious calling at the age of 60.

in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire[3] as the youngest child of Helias and Victoria Papayannis,[citation needed] a wealthy Greek family.

[3] In 1945, Papayannis returned to Greece and began working with the American Farm School and Friends Relief Service in Thessaloniki,[5][3] until 1947, when she moved to Athens and opened a physiotherapy practice.

[citation needed] After four years of providing free physiotherapy to the poor, Papayannis went to the Himalayan Mountains, spending eleven months in solitude as a hermit.

[2] She then traveled to Landour where she met an American woman, who arranged for her to go to the monastery headed by Father Theodosius in Bethany, in the Holy Land in 1960.

[3] In 1996 a biography of her life entitled I Askitiki tis Agapis was published in Greek,[3] in 1999 the book was translated into English,[10] and in 2000 into Russian.