Saints Mary and Martha, Orthodox Monastery, Wagener, SC

Thank you to those of you who asked how Branwynn was doing after you read our last newsletter. The day after we sent the July “One Thing Needful” to the printer, Branwynn died. Having had heart worms when she was two (eight years ago), her heart could not take the stress of the pain from her back going out on her. We truly miss her, her wonderful personality, and the way she knew the endings to all the services.

During the last week of July, Mother Thecla attended the Diocesan Assembly at St. Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas, Texas. Over the years, she has been included in the activities of the clergy wives which she always welcomes. Having been in the South since before the Diocese of the South was formed, she has watched missions spring up and become parishes, and more missions started. It is truly a great joy to see old faces and many new ones and to realize how much God blesses the harvest.

Our outdoor cat, Paganini, became very sick and had to be put down the first part of August. We know that “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away”, and that God is the only one who is in complete control of everything. With all our loses and the struggles that go with them, we can only pray for the strength to keep following Him and not to waver.

The weather was so warm in January and February and then freezing in March that many of our fruit bearing trees did not bear well. Along with this and unusually hot weather in the Spring, our vegetable garden did poorly as well. However, God knows that we only have so much strength and lightened our workload with less produce. Prayer is of first importance. Time to be hospitable for our many guests is next. Candle sales (the monastery’s main support) are up which means more time in the candle shop.

Summers at this monastery bring much company, many of whom offer help with the multitude of tasks that need to be done. One guest, who had health problems, spent hours taking the tiny elderberries off of their stems and cleaning them. This enabled us to make elderberry wine again this year. Another guest spent days working at various chores in the gardens and repairing things. Still another guest whose talent is interior design spent several hours helping us to better plan the monastery chapel on paper to prevent costly mistakes in building. We are always reminded of God’s many gifts spread out among all His people and how, when everyone uses the gifts He gives them, all are blessed.

Laufey with
Mother Thecla

The grape harvest was almost as sparse as the elderberries, so there is very little 2006 altar wine. Even though the squirrels found the pear tree, it still produced more pears than we could manage. So the pear wine is in the making and many pear deserts, and some apple deserts, have now been stored up for the winter.

Sometime during the first week in September, we decided that it was time to get another dog, no, two dogs. When you live in rural America, dogs are most needful. The calls went out to our vet and other animal rescuers that we were looking for two collies or collie mixes. Within two weeks we had two, full-blooded collies whose names are Corelli and Laufey. All of us are adjusting well, including the cats. As one of our friends said, “It’s a God thing to have two collies.”

The beginning of each school year brings math and piano students. Mother Helena tutors math, and Mother Thecla gives piano lessons.

Each year the fourth week of September brings the Clergy Wives Retreat. It is always a pleasure to host their retreat. We simply wish we could provide them with better accommodations. There were a total of eleven in attendance. These women are dedicated to Christ and the building of His Church and do so much work that God alone sees and God alone rewards. Fr. Ernesto Rios graciously volunteered to serve Liturgy here for the clergy wives on Sunday, September 24th. This gift provided all of us with a continued awareness of knowing that we are united in Christ and that He is the center of our lives.

Earlier in the summer, we were given a wall cabinet with 112 drawers for nails, screws, washers, bolts, nuts, and other such items. This, in turn, prompted our re-organizing the right side of the Red Shed, which is cherry red. While moving things around, we noticed that a number of storage boxes had gotten wet and then dried out. We then realized that the Red Shed was twelve years old and that there was only a ten-year warranty on the roof. Now the Red Shed has a new roof.

With cooler weather, it will be easier to work outside. As most of you know, this past summer was really hot. Our gardens have suffered from neglect and summer heat and did not get their winter pruning. As one monk often reminds us, “There is no unemployment in the monastery.”

Please continue to pray for monastic vocations and for the firm planting of monasticism in America.

Life is a struggle but one filled with peace and joy when we are on the right path – the path the Lord has chosen for us. The path of a Christian has always been the narrow path and it appears to be getting narrower as our culture becomes less and less Christian.

In a matins ode we hear of a life “resplendent in virginity”. Among the beloved Apostle John’s honors is his virginity. Where in our current society (even church) is virginity praised? Do we teach our children about virginity and laud its value as a gift we can give to God or to a future spouse? Are we examples of virginal and/or chaste people? St. Seraphim describes virginity as keeping the soul pure. We all need to work at this. St. Maximus the Confessor suggest we do so through self control, prayer and a spiritual love.

We have the Theotokos as the primary model of virginity. May she intercede with her Son for each of us so that through the power of the Holy Spirit in us we can bear the fruits of a virginal/chaste life – love, peace, joy, patience, simplicity, faith, humility, gentleness – to the glory of God.

Aside from the public proclamation of the vow, little is known about the inner life of virgins. The Lord Himself clearly states that the faithful should “never let the left hand know what the right is doing” (Matthew 6:3) and that those who seek the praises of other humans and of the world already receive their reward in full (Matthew 6:5). A true virgin, one who has chosen the angelic state, whose heart is totally devoted to God and to His Will, will remain hidden, in a state of vigilance, anticipation and preparation, for of the date or the hour of the Coming of the Bridegroom no one knows, except the Father (Matthew 24:36 and 25:13). Nonetheless, Christ says, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” (Revelation 3:11)

On July 6, 1540,² some monks were digging a grave near the Church of the Dormition in the Kievan Caves Lavra when, unexpectedly, they came upon the coffin of a princess, the daughter of one of the principal benefactors of the Lavra. On the lid was a plaque with the Olshansky coat-of-arms and the inscription: “Juliana, Princess of Olshansk, Daughter of Prince Yurii Dubrovitsky-Olshansky, reposed a virgin in the 16th year from her birth.” Upon opening the coffin, the monks were amazed to find the body of a young maiden whole and incorrupt, as if she were alive and had just fallen asleep, in spite of the fact that she had been buried some two hundred years before.

Weak human speculation is penetratingly silenced in the face of this scene of heavenly refreshment. Once again, God bursts forth from His Throne on high and shatters the manacles of time and the clumsy framework of human reasoning. A simple vow of virginity embraced and nourished by loving attention and care from a pure, steadfast heart has yielded fruit a hundredfold!

The angelic state incarnated in the earthly life of this innocent princess had engendered an incredible refashioning of her entire human substance. This refashioning, or re-creation, luminously reflects, even beyond death, the glorious image of the Prototype.

The vow of virginity, or consecration to the angelic state, preserved that which is real about St. Juliana, that which is God’s own. (John 13:1) Virginity more deftly enables the total giving of the soul to God, letting go of all obstacles that impede a whole-hearted worship and love of the Adorable One. The Kievan Caves documents prove the supernatural outcome and indicate that the body of the princess was luminous. Such an incorrupt state presupposes something quite miraculous, a restraining or release from living out biological existence within time. St. Juliana must have received every moment as coming from the Hand of Him who is Eternity and, thus, she was given a foretaste of the sweetness of heaven. Her body radiates the beauty within and wordlessly proclaims what is most precious in the sight of God.

After the discovery, many people flocked to the Caves to pray before the relics of the chaste princess. Miracles began to occur at the site. In 1718, a fire at the Church of the Dormition necessitated that the relics be quickly moved to another church closer to the Near Caves. Soon thereafter, St. Juliana appeared in a dream to Archimandrite Peter Moghila,³ who was responsible for the translation of her relics. She reproached him for the carelessness and lack of respect with which the translation was handled. He respectfully ordered that a new reliquary be made with the following inscription: “By the will of the Creator of heaven and earth, Juliana, patroness and great intercessor to Heaven, rests here for all time. Here are the bones . . . for healing against all passions . . . You adorn Paradise, Juliana, like a beautiful flower . . .”

St. Juliana is indeed a divinely wrought ornament, an exquisite blossom. Since she gave up everything for the God of heaven and of earth, she became a participant in His divine and uncreated beauty. Her chaste life enabled her to intentionally partake of the salvific events of the divine-human life of Jesus Christ, thereby commingling with His divine and enduring beauty outside the dissonance of time. Since the Son was given “power over all flesh” (John 17:2), Christ, the ineffable Beauty of the Father, restores to its ancient glory the sullied image of humankind, and especially of those who are pure in heart and body. As the momentous discovery makes clear, the divine grace and power of the Holy Spirit continue to maintain that state of beauty even after her death. Therefore, radiant in beauty, St. Juliana lay in the coffin exuding an eternal freshness and sweet-smelling fragrance in God.

The Holy Princess Juliana continues to be a powerful intercessor for those in need and does not forget those who venerate her holy relics with piety and faith. Her repose has become a descent of grace and consolation for humankind. She bears witness that final bodily splendor will be the lot of the virtuous when they reign with Christ in the glory of their risen bodies.