Readings

July 21: [Maria Skobtsova, Monastic and Martyr, 1945]

The Collect of the Day

Maria Skobtsova

O Creator and Giver of Life, who crowned your martyr Maria Skobtsova with glory and gave her as an example of service to the suffering and poor even unto death: Teach us to love Christ in our neighbors, and thereby battle injustice and evil with the light of the Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.

Maria Skobtsova

O Creator and Giver of Life, who didst crown thy martyr Maria Skobtsova with glory and didst give her as an example of service to the suffering and poor even unto death: Teach us to love Christ in our neighbors, and thereby battle injustice and evil with the light of the Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.

Maria Skobtsova was born to a well to do family in 1891. She was given the name Elizaveta, known as Liza to her family. In 1906, after the death of her father, her mother took the family to St. Petersburg, where she became involved in radical intellectual circles. After her divorce from her first husband, she was drawn to Christianity. She married her second husband, Daniel Skobtsov, and they emigrated to Paris in 1923. Three years later, her youngest child died, and she separated from her second husband. After this, Liza began to work more directly with those who were in need.

In 1932, Liza’s bishop encouraged her to take vows as a nun, which she did taking the name, Maria. She realized that Christian asceticism was not primarily about self-mortification and the cloistered life, but responding with love to the needs of others while trying to create better social structures. She could often be found sitting along the Boulevard Montparnasse, in front of a café, with a glass of beer, smoking cigarettes, and talking with simple workers in full monastic robes. Maria made a rented house in Paris her “convent.” It was a place with an open door for refugees, the needy and the lonely. It also soon became a center for intellectual and theological discussion. For Maria, these two elements—service to the poor and theology—went hand-in-hand.

When the Nazis took Paris in 1940, Maria began to provide a safe haven for Jewish Parisians. Many came to her hoping to receive baptismal certificates, which they believed would prevent their deportation. Her chaplain, Father Dimitri, gladly provided them. As the occupation became more dangerous, the community hid more Jewish people, providing shelter and helping many to escape. Eventually, this work of the community was discovered by the Gestapo. Maria, her son Yuri, her mother Sophia, and Dmitri Klepinin were all taken into custody.

Maria was sent to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück, Germany. While imprisoned, she encouraged the other inmates. Her faith was strengthened by her claim that “each person is the very icon of God incarnate in the world.” With this recognition came the need “to accept this awesome revelation of God unconditionally, to venerate the image of God” in her brothers and sisters.

On Holy Saturday, March 31st, 1945, Mother Maria was taken to the gas chamber and entered eternal life. It is suggested that she took the place of a Jewish woman who had been selected for death. A week later, the camp was liberated by the Red Army. In the Orthodox Church she is commemorated on July 20th.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, *then were we like those who dream.

2Then was our mouth filled with laughter, *and our tongue with shouts of joy.

3Then they said among the nations, *“The Lord has done great things for them.”

4The Lord has done great things for us, *and we are glad indeed.

5Restore our fortunes, O Lord, *like the watercourses of the Negev.

6Those who sowed with tears *will reap with songs of joy.

7Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, *will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.

Gospel

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Judges 5:1–9

1 Then Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying: 2 “When locks are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves willingly— bless the Lord! 3 “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. 4 Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens poured, the clouds indeed poured water. 5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel. 6 “In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans ceased and travelers kept to the byways. 7 The peasantry prospered in Israel, they grew fat on plunder, because you arose, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. 8 When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord.

John 15:1–13

1 ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.