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Icons of St. Maria Skobtsova
of Paris, Nun, + 1945
Feast: July 20
Icon
at top is of four recently-glorified Saints. Mother Maria (as she is
still known by many) appears the second from the left.
St.
Maria was born in 1891 in Latvia, and for some years in her youth she
embraced atheism. She married a Bolshevik in 1910 and published poetry.
By 1913 her marriage had ended. In 1918 she was elected mayor of Anapa
in south Russia. Put on trial for Bolshevism by the White Army, she was
acquitted by the judge, Daniel Skobtsov, a former teacher of hers. She
married Daniel. She fled to Georgia with her children and later to
Paris, where she arrived in 1923. Having turned to faith, she studied
theology and social work. She took the vows of a nun in 1932, with her
husband's permission, but was not secluded. Rather, Mother Maria rented
a house in Paris which she kept as a convent. It was open at all times
to refugees, the needy, and the lonely. It also became a centre of
theological discussion. When the Nazis took Paris, Jews approached the
apartment-convent asking for baptismal certificates (which would save
them from deportation and death). These were provided by St. Dmitri,
the priest who served the convent. Eventually, Mother Maria, Fr.
Dmitri, and Sts. Yuri and Sophia were taken prisoner. On Holy Saturday,
1945, St. Maria was slaughtered in the gas chambers of Ravensbruck
concentration camp and entered into the joy of her Lord. These Saints
were glorifed early in 2004 by the Oecumenical Patriarchate.
Top
Icon: by the hand of Maria Struve, who knew all four Saints.\
Next
Icon: of unknown provenance.
Next
Icon: by the hand of an unknown iconographer.
Next
Icon: by the hand of Olga Poloukhine.
Next
Icon: by the hand of Patricia Fostiropoulis of London, UK.
Next
Icon: by the hand of Protodeacon Paul (Hommes) of the Moscow
Patriarchal monastery in Diksmuide, Belgium.
Beneath
the Icons is shown an icon banner embroidered by St. Maria and a
photograph of the Saint.
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