| Mother Maria: Love Without End Photo: www.pinterest.ru/Dawn Maclaughlin “No amount of thought will ever result in any greater formulation than the three words, ‘Love one another,’ so long as it is love to the end and without exceptions.” –Mother Maria of Paris, Letters Today will mark the 74th anniversary of her death in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. In case you needed a short reminder, Mother Maria was rounded up by the Nazis in Paris after they uncovered a letter addressed implicating her son, Yuri, and Father Dimittir Kelpinin in a scheme forging false baptismal certificates for the Jews in the poor neighborhood around Rue Roumel. By the start of the WW2, Mother Maria was managing a home for the destitute, the mentally and physically handicapped, a sanctuary for the many refugee Russian emigres who had fled the revolution. Had they have gotten word about how she had orchestrated a rescue plan along with the sanitation workers that involved hiding Jewish children in garbage cans and then transferring them to her house in darkness where they eventually would get transported via bakery trucks and other commercial vehicles to the South of France, they would have rounded her up sooner. (An illustrated children’s book tells this story Silent as a Stone ). Their involvement in the Resistance eventually did them in. While her son Yuri and Fr. Dimitri Kelpinin perished in Buchenwald camp within two years of arriving there, Mother Maria who had been used to hard labor and difficult living conditions, managed to survive for several more. Eventually her health started failing her as she was used to giving away the meager portions of bread to her other prisoners. Her other workmates remembered how she was always joyful. As an idealist with deep sensitivity, she had a way of seeing the beauty even in monstrosity. On the 30 th of March, it so happened that Good Friday fell on that day in the year 1945, Maria Skobotska even though she was not chosen, asked to stand in the place of another woman prisoner. The following day, Holy Saturday, she was led into the gas chambers and surrendered her soul. The liberation would occur only several months later. |
| Together with three other Diveyevo sisters she moved to the Kuzyatovo village of the Ardatov district. The nuns assisted at the church and made some money by needlework. In April 1933 they were arrested and charged with anti-Soviet agitation. On May 21 Novice Nun Matrona was sentenced to three years in the Dmitrov Camp of the Moscow region which was notorious for its very harsh conditions. After serving her term St. Matrona settled at the church of the Verigino village in the Gorky district where she worked as a chorister, a church caretaker, and a cleaning woman. On November 10, 1937, the nun was arrested for the second time and accused of “the involvement in a counter-revolutionary Church-Fascist organization.” During the examination the saint refused to give evidence and pleaded not guilty. Novice Nun Matrona was sentenced to ten years of labor at the Karlag camp where she worked as a cleaner in the hospital. The hospital administration noted her conscientious work and modest behavior. After her release she settled at the Vyezdnoye locality near Arzamas, where now one of the Diveyevo sketes is located. As before, her main occupation was serving in the church. On October 19, 1949, the holy nun was arrested again on the basis of the materials relating to the old case (of 1937) and exiled to Kazakhstan. Matrona was charged with “hostile activities,” and there were even attempts to slander a priest of the Verigino village, but all the investigators’ efforts proved futile. The case even comprises the information that “the investigative file makes no mention of the individuals compromised by the evidence of the detainee Vlasova.” Altogether the Venerable Confessor Matrona of Diveyevo spent seventeen years in camps. In 1954 her brother Andrei submitted a clemency petition on his sister’s behalf. The holy nun spent the final years of her life in her brother’s house in her native village of Puzo. Sister Matrona was very humble and meek. She would pray the best part of a day. The church was closed, so the Diveyevo sisters performed their services at homes despite all the prohibitions and persecutions. |
| Германн Рейнгольд, генерал-лейтенант французской службы † 1667; женат: 1) на NN; 2) на Анне-Маргарите д’Эппе (от 1-го брака дочь; от 2-го брака 2 дочери) Вольдемар, генерал-майор французской службы (maréchal-de-camp.) † 1645; женат на девице д’Эппе Иоанн, генерал-майор французской службы (maréchal-de-camp.), убит в сражении под Ретелем 1650; женат на Жанете де Шуазёль-Бопре Иоанн, эстляндский ландмаршал, женат на Гертруде Бракель Елисавета, за Георгом-Оттоном Бергом Анна-Доротея, за Георгом Трейденом Маргарита-Елисавета, за Иоанном Будденброком Анна, 1) за Иоанном Икскулем; 2) за Бернгардом Шаренбергом Маргарита, за Фромгольдом Тизенгаузеном КОЛЕНО VIII: Генрих-Иоанн, шведский подполковник † 1712 Фабиан, шведский подполковник † 1717 Георг-Христофор, женат на Иоанне-Ренате Розен София-Агнеса, за Оттоном-Вильгельмом Бок Барон Фабиан, рождение 1625 † 1698; женат на баронессе Елисавете Кевенгюллер Оттон, рождение 1626 † 1667, подполковник лифляндский дворянской кавалерии; женат на Доротее-Марие Кальден Граф Конрад, рождение 1628 † 1715, маршал французских войск, маршал ирландских войск, кавалер французских орденов святого Духа и святого Лудовика большого креста; женат на Маие-Софие Розен Эрнест-Иоанн, эстляндский ландмаршал † 1697; женат на Елисавете-Гертруде Будберг Георг, шведский майор Екатерина-Елисавета, за шведским генерал-лейтенант Яковом Икскулем (в последствии бароном Мейендорф фон-Икскуль) Мария-София, за графом Розеном 58) Иоанна-Рената, за Розеном 55) Георг, полковник австрийской службы, убит на штурме Ландскроны 1677; женат: 1) на Маргарите Розен; 2) на Марие-Эвве Цурейн Маргарита, за Розеном 61) Роберт, женат на Магдалине Ассериен Иоанн, шведский полковник NN † в молодых летах Анна, за Иоахимом Берендсом КОЛЕНО IX: Беатрикса-Христина Барон Георг-Густав, рождение 1656 † 1714, российский генерал-поручик, потом австрийский фельдмаршал-лейтенант; женат: 1) на девице Функен; 2) на девице д’Эппе (от 1-го брака 2 сына и 3 дочери; от 2-го брака дочь) Барон Конрад, австрийский подполковник |
| An international committee of prisoners is formed to take over the administration of the camp. Food from SS-stores is put at the disposal of the camp kitchen. A US military unit also contributes some provision, thereby providing me with my first opportunity to taste American corn. By order of an American officer radio-receivers are confiscated from “prominent Nazis” in the town of Dachau and distributed to the various national groups of prisoners. The news come in: Hitler has committed suicide, the Russians have taken Berlin, and German troops have surrendered in the South and in the North. But the fighting still rages in Austria and Czechoslovakia… Naturally, I was ever cognizant of the fact that these momentous events were unfolding during Holy Week. But how could we mark it, other than through our silent, individual prayers? A fellow-prisoner and chief interpreter of the International prisoner’s committee, Boris F., paid a visit to my typhus-infested barrack “Block 27” to inform me that efforts were underway in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Greek National Prisoner’s Committees to arrange an Orthodox service for Easter day, May 6th. There were Orthodox priests, deacons and a group of monks from Mount Athos among the prisoners. But there were no vestments, no books whatsoever, no icons, no candles, no prosphoras, no wine… Efforts to acquire all these items from the Russian parish in Munich failed, as the Americans just could not locate anyone from that parish in the devastated city. Nevertheless, some of the problems could be solved: The approximately 400 Catholic priests detained in Dachau had been allowed to remain together in one barrack and recite mass every morning before going to work. They offered us Orthodox the use of their prayer room in “Block 26”, which was just across the road from my own “block”. The chapel was bare, save for a wooden table and a Czenstochowa icon of the Theotokos hanging on the wall above the table – an icon which had originated in Constantinople and was later brought to Belz in Galicia, where it was subsequently taken from the Orthodox by a Polish king. When the Russian Army drove Napoleon’s troops from Czenstochowa, however, the abbot of the Czenstochowa Monastery gave a copy of the icon to czar Alexander I, who placed it in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg where it was venerated until the Bolshevik seizure of power. A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was also found. New linen towels were taken from the hospital of our former SS-guards. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachilion and when sewn together at the ends they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS-guards, were put on the towel-vestments. |
| Духу приписывается образование плоти (formatio corporis), к-рую воспринимает Сын. Ведь подобно тому как сила души, сокрытая в семени, посредством духа, заключающегося в семени, образует тело при зачатии человека, так и Сила Божия, Которая есть Сам Сын, посредством Св. Духа, Который, согласно Фоме, есть Дух Сына, образовала Себе тело, к-рое и восприняла. Именно это говорит арх. Гавриил Марии: «Дух Святой найдет на Тебя», как бы для приготовления и образования материи тела Христова; и «Сила Всевышнего», т. е. Христос, Сила Отца, «осенит Тебя» (Лк 1. 35), когда бестелесный божественный Свет в Тебе воспримет человеческое тело; ведь тень образуется от света и тела (Sum. Th. III 32. 1. 1; ср.: Petr. Lomb. Sent. III 3. 1; Bonav. Breviloq. IV 3. 79-83). Иными словами, послание Сына приписывается Отцу, совершение зачатия - Св. Духу, а восприятие плоти - Сыну ( Thom. Aquin. Sum. Th. III 32. 1. 2). II. В. как восприятие человеческой природы Лицом Бога Слова. Большинство схоластов рассматривают В. как «восприятие» (assumptio, acceptio, susceptio, реже - unio, «соединение» или induere, «облачение») человеческой природы в единство вечного Лица Бога Слова (см.: Guill. Camp. Dial.//PL. 163. Col. 1059; Hugo Vict. Sum. sent. I 15; De sacr. II 1. 9; De sapient. anim. Chr.//PL. 176. Col. 847; Anselmus. Cur Deus. II 13; De concept. virg. 1; Bernard. Clar. De considerat. V 8. 18-19; Petr. Lomb. Sent. III 1. 2; 4; Bonav. Breviloq. IV 2. 8-10; Thom. Aquin. Sum. Th. III 2. 8; 3. 1 etc.). По определению Бонавентуры, В. есть «действие Троицы, в котором произошло восприятие плоти Божеством» (Breviloq. IV 2. 8-10). При этом восприятии не только не было утрачено единство Лица Сына Божия, но и не произошло никакого изменения, умаления или приращения Его божественной природы, но Он остался Богом, Которым был, и воспринял в единство с Собою человека, к-рым не был ( Guill. Camp. Dial.//PL. 163. Col. 1059; Anselmus. Cur Deus. II 7; Petr. Lomb. Sent. III 2. 2; Thom. Aquin. Sum. Th. III 1. 1. 1; 3. 1. 1). |
| Richard G. Joseph, a longtime parishioner of St. Elias and a friend, said: “He felt that way to the day he died, that we should be one. “His eminence was a remarkable gentleman — his ability to be with people, to communicate effectively in English and Arabic,” Mr. Joseph said. “His very being created warmth. When he walked in the room, you knew without his being seen that someone special was in the room.” Mr. Royhab noted that Metropolitan Philip built a church of immigrants into a church “that has attracted converts into the clergy as well as parishes across the country.” “He was a visionary in the church and has built the archdiocese in America from some 50 churches into several hundred churches today,” Mr. Royhab said. Metropolitan Philip, as first vice chairman of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, “passionately supported a common witness to our Orthodox faith in the world,” Archbishop Demetrios, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and chairman of that canonical assembly, said in a statement. “The very characteristic of Metropolitan Philip was his identity as a shepherd, a father who cared for and labored diligently for his flock,” Archbishop Demetrios said in the statement. The Very Rev. Thomas Begley recalled the metropolitan as a warm and understanding man who was also a good church organizer. “He was truly a man who had vision,” said Father Thomas, who is dean of the Upper Midwest Deanery of the Diocese of Toledo of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. He is based in West St. Paul, Minn. The metropolitan was able to inspire people — even for projects that sometimes seemed unlikely. Decades ago, for instance, the metropolitan started a church camp, Antiochian Village, in what seemed like a middle-of-nowhere spot in western Pennsylvania’s borough of Bolivar. Many wondered who would ever go there, Father Thomas said. But the camp flourished, a tribute to the metropolitan’s ability to find donors, send campers, and pick an able director, Father Thomas said. |
| Back in Hungary, the bishop of Mukaevo (Firczák) considered the American situation as one «caught between the Scylla of poverty and the Charybdis of schism [Orthodoxy].» 163 . Eventually, the Right Reverend Andrew Hodobay was assigned as the Apostolic Visitor but after a few years (from 1902–1906) he was recalled due to in-fighting among the various Eastern Rite Catholic groups. In 1907, Rome consecrated Stephen Ortinsky to be an Eastern Catholic bishop in America but he was given no real jurisdiction, being nothing more than a vicar of Rome and an auxiliary to the American, Latin Rite bishops. He was given full jurisdiction in 1913, but died unexpectedly in 1916, before he could fully initiate needed changes and pastoral oversight. Upon his death, the Eastern Catholics in America split between a Carpatho-Rusyn camp and a Ukrainian camp. The Carpatho-Rusyns did receive Bishop Basil Takach in 1924, but Fr. Orestes Chornock led a group of Carpatho-Rusyns – much as Toth had earlier – to join the Orthodox Church. They chose to enter as an autonomous Church under the Ecumenical Patriarch due to concerns of Russification (e.g. establishing Russian language schools in Carpatho-Rusyn parishes, replacing Carpatho-Rusyn chant and liturgical practices with Russian ones, and telling the faithful they are really part of the Russian people). 164 Nonetheless, Toth " s own personal efforts effected the intra-Christian conversions of tens of thousands of his fellow Carpatho-Rusyns. Throughout his dedicated career of service to the Russian Orthodox Mission in America, Alexis Toth consistently argued that Orthodoxy was both the apostolic faith and the traditional religion of the Carpatho-Rusyn people. He joined this argument to the belief that the Carpatho-Rusyns were part of the Russian people, whose lives were furthered by the Tsar and the Russian Orthodox Church. In this way, Toth looked to restore the pre-unia Orthodox Church of the Carpatho-Rusyns. In many ways, the Carpatho-Rusyn resistance against Hungarian and Latin Catholics was a matter of preserving their culture and their Eastern Rite tradition. Here, the point expressed by Mlinar was important. The Carpatho-Rusyns knew themselves only as Orthodox, which enabled Toth to argue successfully that to be a Carpatho-Rusyn Eastern Christian meant they needed to turn to the Orthodox tradition of their ancestors. |
| 995 (Ст. 3). «В приближающихся ко Мне освящусь и перед всем народом прославлюсь». В предыдущем примечании мы говорили, что смерть Надава и Авиуда, прославляя пред народом святость храма, в котором проявилось Имя Господне, вместе с тем возносила и самое звание священника, окружая обязанности его опасностию и заставляя его вести жизнь безупречную и относится свято к своим обязанностям. Мы не находим буквально слов Моисея, сказанных по этому случаю в другом месте Пятокнижия, хотя близкий к ним смысл имеет, напр., Исхода XIX, 22. «Священники, приближающиеся к Господу, должны освятить себя, чтобы не поразил их Господь». Аарон не находит слов оправдания для сынов своих, сознавая, что Господь поразил их справедливо. Можно думать, что и глубокая горесть сделала его немым. Замечают еще впрочем, что молчание Аарона доказывает его понимание своих обязанностей, потому что в древнем мире горесть выражалась воплем и разодранием одежд своих. 996 (Ст. 4), Мисаил и Елцафан, сыны Узиила, были двоюродные братья Аарона и Моисея по родословной, Исход VI, 18–22. В стихе 4 выражение: «вынесите братьев ваших из святилища за стан», подало повод к недоумению: следует ли разуметь, что Надав и Авиуд вошли в скинию и умерли там, или же они умерли перед скинией и слово святилище надо понимать в общем смысле святого места, обнимающего в своем значении как скинию, так и самый двор ее. Притом не все переводы согласны с нашим. Англ. узаконенный перевод: Carry your brethren from before the sanctuary , out of the camp»; т. e., точно также как переводит наша славянская Библия: «возьмите братий своих от лица святых вне полка». У Остервальда: «Portez vos frères de devant le sanctuaire hors du camp». У Лютера и О. Герлаха не совсем ясно: «Traget eure Brüder fon dem Heiligthum hinaus for das Lager». Нам кажется, что сказание о смерти Надава и Авиуда, следуя непосредственно за появлением славы Господней и за выражением радости народа (ст. 23–24, глава IX), не позволяет думать, чтобы они могли проникнуть в скинию собрания, в которую и Моисей не мог войти, когда слава Господня наполняла скинию (ст. 35, главы XL Исхода). Нам кажется, что они, позабыв величие и святость Божию и притом вкусив опьяняющего напитка (ср. прим, 7), взяли без приказания свои кадильницы в торжественную минуту проявления славы Господней и решились подойти ко входу скинии, но упали обожженные пламенем, вырвавшимся из скинии или из самых кадильниц их. По этому их должны были поднять на дворе скинии между умывальником и входом в скинию. |
| Part of the funding will also be used to restore further the Montanesium Fortress, including by installing special lighting. “This will contribute to the wholesomeness of this historical ensemble as a cultural tourism site, " Kabakchieva says. Montana is technically the only major city in Bulgaria which still has its Roman name (even though that has changed throughout the ages – learn more in the Background Infonotes below). It has been estimated that during the Roman period, ancient Montanesium had a population of about 30,000. The partly restored ruins of the Ancient Roman city and fortress of Montanesium, today’s Montana in Northwest Bulgaria. Photo: Montana Regional Museum of History Ancient Roman artifacts exhibited in the open in the yard of the Montana Regional Museum of History. Photo: Montana Regional Museum of History Background Infonotes: The early history of today’s northwestern Bulgarian city of Montana is primarily associated with the Ancient Roman military camp and later city and fortress of Montanesium, initially known as Castra ad Montanesium (“castra " meaning “camp " in Latin) from the Roman Antiquity period (1 st -4 th century AD). However, the earliest traces of civilized life on the territory of Bulgaria’s Montana date to the Chalcolithic Age (Aeneolithic, Copper Age), from the 5 th -4 th millennium BC, and have been discovered in the lower archaeological layers on the site of the Montanesium Fortress. During the 1st millennium BC the place was inhabited by the independent Ancient Thracian tribe Triballi, which was allied with the Odrysian Kingdom, the most powerful Ancient Thracian state. From this period, the Montanesium Fortress features preserved sections of the pre-Roman, Ancient Thracian fortress wall, over 1 meter thick, which is located under the Roman fortress’s large fortress tower. The Roman Empire conquered the region of Montana in today’s Northwest Bulgaria around 29 BC (all of Ancient Thrace south of the Danube was conquered by Ancient Rome in 46 AD) setting up a military camp, Castra ad Montanesium, on top of the existing Ancient Thracian settlement. |
| Then President of the Philippines, Elpidio Quirino, expressed a willingness to house the refugees. Through the International Refugee Organization (IRO), as transient guests, the Philippines offered the nearly 6,000 white Russians (this included all the ethnic groups that were part of this evacuation) refuge in Tubabao, until arrangements could be made for their immigration to other countries. And thus, from 1949-1951, a camp was set up by the refugees, with tents for family’s living quarters. Several churches, converted from left-over US army buildings from WWII, in various denominations held services. Numerous groups, founded in Shanghai, League of Russian American Women, All Cossacks Union, Cadets, Monarchists continued their active work. Russian Scouts in great numbers, not only held their traditional campfires, processions, they were instrumental in helping clear the brush in the over-grown jungle of Tubabao and build the camp. IRO set up a school for all the children and youth on the island. St John of Shanghai’s orphans from the St Tikhon’s Orphanage had also come to the island. A band was organized and entertained residents of the island with weekly dances. An orchestra, theater group, ballet and folk dancers all played their part in entertaining the white Russians. It was with great anticipation and joy that the refugees welcomed St John of Shanghai to the island. His prayers and blessings sustained the refugees with hope, and while some refugees were able to leave the island in the beginning of 1950 to Australia, those that remained for nearly another year, remained optimistic that their prayers would be answered. It was Vladyka John who intervened on their behalf and appealed to the United States government to permit the remaining refugees to the U.S. His holy prayers were answered when then-California Senator William Knowland visited the Tubabao encampment in 1950 and upon returning to the US, introduced a bill to change the Displaced Persons Act to allow the remainder of the refugees into the U.S. |
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