Saints Mary and Martha, Orthodox Monastery, Wagener, SC

Over this last quarter, we took a serious look at what is happening to the economy, noted the amount we have in our Building Fund, and decided to ask our contractor what portion of the monastery building could be built with what we had. His response was two-thirds of the building, i.e., finished exterior with roughed-in interior. (Remember, this is a sizable building which has to conform to the National Building Regulations for a monastery -- Aiken County’s rules, not ours.) Of course, there is much in the way of infrastructure, like a well, septic system, grease trap, etc. We know it is expensive to build a truly energy efficient building which is as fire proof and earthquake resistant as possible. Investing up front for well thought out good workmanship more than pays for itself in the long run, as well as the short run. It is important to us to build well so that the next generation can add to it rather than have to rebuild. Too often, we have seen the sad results of the attitude, “Oh, just slap something up and leave the problem to the next generation.”

Our contractor stated that is would be April 2012 before he could begin. Having looked at our calendar, April is already filled with Holy Week, Pascha, Bright Week, and our Pilgrimage. May or June will, more than likely, be the time we begin building, if all the paper work is done by then. Once the exterior of this portion of the building is finished, we will finish the interior of the Chapel and one working bathroom. Then, as God wills, we will finish off the other rooms striving not to go into debt.

This said, we tried to contact our original architect to no avail. His office building was empty and up for sale. It has been twelve years since he drew the original plans. Over that time, we have made many changes as the result of our living monastic life here, and the suggestions of other professionals and friends who have shared their own experiences and ideas with us. Nothing has gone to waste. Now we have engaged the services of another architect and are working through the many changes and additions that have been made to the old plans. Of course, every time we hear the word “additions”, we hear the old time cash register go “chi-ching”.

To have a Chapel that is separate from the double wide trailer we now live in would truly be a blessing for us as well as our visitors. Over the years, many of you have contributed to our Building Fund, which is currently, $395,449.33.

As many of you know, our wish list has consisted of one thing -- donations to the Monastery Building Fund. While that is still the only item on our wish list, in time, it will become more specific as we work on the Monastery Building.

Among our visitors in August, were four girls with their chaperons from The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Mission, Greensboro, North Carolina. They were a delightful group of serious young women who participated in prayers, helped out in the candle shop and perennial garden, and enjoyed interacting with one another.

The Ducra family volunteered a Saturday in August and helped us with several task that required Barry’s strength. We finished setting the last three water hose holders on Candle Shop Lane, dug potatoes, picked up the cherry and maple wood at the sawmill, and set it up to dry.

In late August, Mother Thecla was informed of Archbishop Dmitri’s condition and made the drive to Dallas, Texas. Arriving there on Friday morning, August 26th, she was able to speak with him briefly -- a true blessing, as he reposed early on the morning of August 28th (old calendar Dormition). On Monday evening, she was able to attend the Panikhida which included the Canon of Pascha. May his memory be eternal!

September 10th found us at the Barnyard Flea Market for the first time this year. Showing up at the flea market one to three times a year for the last fifteen years has become more of an outreach to be a witness to Christ, the Orthodox Faith, and for people to know that there are Orthodox Christian Nuns. We sold all we could and added $275 to the Building Fund. That will pay for a few bricks.

Each year we allow the ducks to have ducklings, raise them, and teach them “duck knowledge”. While they are maturing, we seek out homes for them. Once we know who is female and who is male, we notify everyone who is interested in raising Indian Runner ducks and solicit the help of children, usually members of the families who are receiving the ducks. Ducks went to four different families. It is important to thin out our flock to sixteen ducks (two drakes and fourteen hens) for their well being and our ability to care for them.

Once again we enjoyed hosting the Clergy Wives’ Retreat on the fourth weekend of September. Nine clergy wives attended. Although the names and number of Matushki attending vary from year to year, this group was peaceful, productive, supportive of each other, reflective, and grateful to have a place to gather.

These women work hard at taking care of the family, working an outside job, and performing many needful tasks in their parish. May God give them the wisdom, love, and strength to fulfill their role as “little mothers of the church”.

Since our April/July newsletter, we have gone from three hives to one. One hive was formed from splitting the strong hive and adding an Italian bred queen bee. She and her court absconded with all the honey and wax. The original weak hive collapsed -- the bee version of “the rapture”. The strong hive survives and remains strong, consuming five pounds of sugar syrup per day as we prepare to winter over. Spring will bring another attempt to live as organically as possible with our bees. God willing, the bees will be successful at teaching us what to do and not to do to support them. The bees know what is needed.

It takes all three of us to bring the potted plants from outside into the front porch of the Barne Shoppes. When we saw that the nights were dropping into the thirties, we had to clean the windows and work quickly to prepare the porch to receive the plants into their winter home.

October, like the other months was filled with prayer, visitors, and work, as well as a little “down time”. Even though we don’t go into detail, our lives are full and overflowing. Once you say yes to God’s will, He leads you on an incredible journey that you could have never imagined.

To read Part 1, go to http://www.saintsmaryandmarthaorthodoxmonastery.org/ and click on Newsletters. Then click on See old newsletters, scroll down and click on Read January 2011 Newsletter.

St. Clement I
Pope of Rome
Before, and after, 482, the official year of the founding of Kiev, much trade and Christian missionary activity abounded. Chersonesos (Cherson), an ancient Greek colony located on the south side of the Taurica (Crimea) Peninsula bordering the north shore of the Black Sea and southeast of Kiev, was used by the Romans and later the Byzantines to exile politically dangerous prisoners, among whom were many Christian leaders, notably Pope Clement I and Pope Martin I. By the time Constantine I officially recognized Christianity in 312, a strong Christian community was flourishing there. Chersonesos, the oldest Christian city in the Taurica, had its own bishop, and was represented at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea in 325. It can easily be surmised that Christian missionaries journeyed to the surrounding lands. Beside Chersonesos, Pantecapaeum (later known as Kerch), a Greek city-state which is at the eastern most edge of the Kerch Peninsula, and Hermonassa (later known as Tmutorokan), a Greek colony on the western edge of the Taman Peninsula, were major trade centers on the Silk Road which also provided inroads for Christian missionaries. The Taurican Goths who occupied the land just north of Chersonesos and Azov Goths who lived around the Sea of Azov and at the mouth of the Tanais (Don) River were converted to Christianity in the third and forth centuries. The Abasgains and Alans, who inhabited the land between the Tanais (Don) River on the west, the Caspian Sea on the east and the Caucasus Mountains to the south, converted to Christianity in the latter half of the sixth century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonies_in_antiquityWith Constantinople on the western edge of the Black Sea and extensive missionary work taking place throughout the port cities of the Black Sea, Azov Sea, and over to the Caspian Sea, it could be conjectured that there were Christian missionaries who ventured inland, converted some to the Christian faith, and returned home or died in the endeavor. Written history of this time and place are sketchy and open to much debate. Archeological evidence is fragmentary at best. It is even more so with Kiev, where the primary building material was wood, and the primary writing materials were bark or leather.

It is thought that Christianity may have reached Slavic Kiev by the middle of the fifth century. Kiev had become a flourishing commercial center on the Dnieper River before its access to the Black Sea was intermittently cut off by the Kutrigar Huns, the Avars, the Alans, the Khazars, the Magyars and the Pechenegs in succession. This situation existed till the middle of the ninth century. Nevertheless, there was trade from these and other tribes to the east as well as the Slavs and Franks west of Kiev. Who fought against whom was often determined by the machinations of Byzantine politics. During this time, the Western Slavs migrated and settled in Greece as far as the Peloponnese which greatly alarmed the Byzantines. Whereas the Eastern Slavs slowly formed tribal unions.

Rurik as depicted on the
Millennium Monument
in Novgorod
At the end of the eighth century and well into the ninth century, Varangians (Norse) arrived at Novgorod and settled among Slavs. In the mid 850s, Rurik, a Varangian (Danish) chieftain, arrived at Novgorod with many members of his family and warrior companions with their families. (Note: There is thought to be a discrepancy of six years between the Primary Chronicle and the date given by other records.) Two of Rurik’s companions were Askold and Dir (Swedish) who were sent to Constantinople (Tzargrad) with other Varangian warriors to open trade with the Byzantines. However, while traveling down the Dnieper River, Askold and Dir came to Kiev, settled there, began to rule, and lost their connection with Novgorod. In the spring of 860, Askold successfully laid siege to a virtuously defenseless Constantinople, whose military had been deployed to fight the Normans in the west and the Arabs in the east. The Byzantine Emperor, Michael III (862-867), made a truce with Askold in which he handsomely paid the Varangians to leave and promised to send an annual tribute thereafter. Michael III also authorized the Varangians and Russians to serve in the Byzantine army, allowed them to trade in the Byzantine Empire, and established diplomatic missions in Constantinople and Kiev. Some historians recorded that Askold and several of his men were baptized into Orthodox Christianity and that Patriarch Photius (858-867) sent a bishop to Kievan Rus in 864. This was considered The First Christian Conversion of Russia. There is scarce evidence to substantiate this; however, those whom the Holy Spirit led to Christ, converted, received baptism, and brought the Christian faith back with them to Kiev.

It should be noted here that Patriarch Photius revived Byzantine missionary activities. Probably in late 860, he appointed Constantine the Philosopher (later tonsured Cyril) and Methodius as Christian representatives to the Khazarians, a kingdom east of Kiev. During their stop over at Chersonesos, Constantine found a copy of the Gospels and the Psalms written in Russian characters. After finding a man who spoke that language, he conversed with and quickly understood his Slavic dialect. Once he knew the sounds that each character represented, adjusted to the Slavic dialect of the area, and prayed to God, he was able to read, speak, and understand it (Russian).

Before Rurik died or returned to Friesland (old family lands in Denmark) in 873, he left Oleg (Norwegian), a close relation, to rule Novgorod and to be the guardian of Igor, who may have been a son of his old age or his grandson. Oleg organized the northern Russian tribes, secured Smolensk, Liubech and other strategic posts on the Dnieper, led a successful military campaign against Kiev in which Askold and Dir were murdered by subterfuge, united the southern Russian tribes with the northern ones, and made Kiev his seat of power. With the Magyars and then the Pechenegs controlling the southern portion of the Dnieper River, it would not be possible for Oleg to launch his campaign against Constantinople till 907. Whatever Christian beginnings were in Kiev, this severing of communications to the south caused Christianity to diminish and the various pagan religions to increase.

Altas of Russian History, page 12

During this time, Constantine, now know as Cyril, died in Rome where he and his brother, Methodius, had traveled to petition the Pope to allow the Moravians to worship in their own language, a form of Slavonic. Permission was granted, but upon Methodius death in 885, the use of Slavonic was forbidden in Moravia due to the pressure Frankish bishops brought on Rome. The disciples of Cyril and Methodius packed up their translations of the Gospels and Liturgical Service books and took refuge in Bulgaria and Serbia and eventually in Russia.

From 862 till 886, Khan Boris, wanting the Bulgarians to be autonomous both in church and state, struggled mightily with the pagan parties in his own country, with Rome who was influenced by the Frankish prelates, and with Constantinople who considered Bulgaria part of the Byzantine Empire and under its Patriarch. With the arrival of Clement, Nahum, and other disciples of Cyril and Methodius in 866, the use of Slavonic instead of Greek in Bulgarian churches was made possible. Slavonic copies of important church books were made. Seminaries to train Bulgarian priests were established. At the Bulgarian National Assembly in 893, Khan Simeon 893-927, the son of Khan Boris, was proclaimed ruler of Bulgaria, Slavonic was made the official language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and Clement, a native Bulgarian, was appointed Bishop of Velich.

By 900, there were a number of Slavs at the Bulgarian court as well as Bulgarians at the Kievan court. A simply written Cyrillic (Slav) script was now available to the Russians, which, in turn provided a vehicle for literacy and conversion to Christianity.

(to be continued)

Atlas of Russian History, Martin Gilbert, Dorset Press, New York, 1984

Byzantine Missions among the Slaves, Frances Dvornik, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1970

Entry of the Slaves into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slaves, A. P. Vlasto, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970

History of Russia, George Vernadsky & Michael Karpovich, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1943

History of the Church of Russia, A. N. Mouravieff, Translated by Rev. R. W. Blackmore, 1841

Kievan Russia, George Vernadsky, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1973

Medieval Russia’s Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, Edited and Translated by Serge A. Zenkovskys, Meridian, New York, 1974