Gerontissa Gavrielia (Elder Gabriela), also known as Mother Gavrielia[1] (15 October 1897 – 28 March 1992) was a Greek Orthodox nun, known for her care of the poor and sick. 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.

Avrilia Papayannis was born on 15 October (2 October O.S.) 1897 N.S. in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire as the youngest child of Helias and Victoria Papayannis, a wealthy Greek family. She grew up in Constantinople and lived there until her family was deported during the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey and sent to Thessaloniki. She entered the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, becoming the second woman ever admitted to a Greek university, where she earned a degree in philosophy. She had previously graduated with a degree in botany at a Swiss university. In 1932, she moved to Athens and cared for nursing home residents until 1938 when she moved to England to study podiatry and physiotherapy, where she remained until the end of World War II.