- Mother Maria
Mother Maria ( _ru. Мать Мария) (1891 – 1945), born "Elizaveta Yurievna Pilenko" (Елизавета Юрьевна Пиленко), "Kuzmina-Karavayeva" (Кузьмина-Караваева) by her first marriage, "Skobtsova" (Скобцова) by her second marriage, was a
Russia n noble lady,poetess ,nun , and member of theFrench Resistance movement duringWorld War II .In 1932 Elizaveta Pilenko made her monastic profession and became Mother Maria. [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jim_forest/mmaria.htm Mother Maria: Nun and Martyr] ]
During the Nazi occupation of Paris, she worked to save Jewish refugees from deportation to the concentration camps, for which she was later recognized as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations atYad Vashem . [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206027.pdf Biographical note from the Shoah Resource Center] ]She died in the
Ravensbrück concentration camp . Her life is dramatized in a Soviet movie starringLyudmila Kasatkina . She was glorified by theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople onJanuary 16 ,2004 .By the words of
Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh :"Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood face to face with the problems of this century." [ [http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/4541/ Page about Maria Skobtsova] ]Example of poetry
In July, 1942, when the order requiring Jews to wear the yellow star was published, she wrote a poem entitled "Israel":
:Two triangles, a star,:The shield of King David, our forefather.:This is election, not offense.:The great path and not an evil.:Once more in a term fulfilled,:Once more roars the trumpet of the end;:And the fate of a great people:Once more is by the prophet proclaimed.:Thou art persecuted again, O Israel, :But what can human malice mean to thee, :who have heard the thunder from Sinai? [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jim_forest/mmaria.htm Mother Maria: Nun and Martyr] ]
External links
* [http://www.mere-marie.com/ Web-site dedicated to Mother Maria, in Russian]
* [http://www.vor.ru/Events/program14.html The Voice of Russia: Mother Maria]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/4541/ Saint Mother Maria Skobtsova]
* [http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002413.php#more Elizaveta (Liza) Yurevna Pilenko]References
* [http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Maria_Skobtsova OrthodoxWiki: Maria Skobtsova]
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