Tonsure performed at the Lugansk convent during artillery shelling

Lugansk, July 2, 2014

By the mercy of God, after the tonsure ceremony was over, the cannonade calmed down and did not disturb the silence in the city for the rest of the day and for the following night.

In the evening of June 30, 2014, His Eminence Archbishop Metrophanes of Lugansk and Alchevsk made novice Elena Kuznetsova from St. Olga’s Convent of Lugansk a nun with the name Agrippina, in honor of Holy Virgin-Martyr Agrippina of Rome (feast: June 23/July 6). She is the senior sister of the Kazan Skete of the convent (in the Shchetovo village of the Antratsyt district).

In spite of the noise from the artillery shelling and bursts of submachine-gun fire from outside, the tonsure ceremony took place in St. Panteleimon’s Church (on the territory of the oncological dispensary) of St. Olga’s Convent in Lugansk as the sisters and clergy prayed, reports the convent’s press service.

Having administered the sacrament, the archpastor greeted the nun with her new rank, admonished her to carry out her obedience zealously, and entrusted her to spiritual guidance of the convent’s confessor Archpriest Andrei Dubina and the senior sister Nun Nadezhda (Mishchenko). Wishing her the constant intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God in her monastic life, he also gave the newly-tonsured Nun Agrippina an Icon of Holy Theotokos.

By the mercy of God, after the tonsure, the newly-tonsured nun read the psalter and His Eminence Archbishop Metrophanes read the prayer for taking off the klobuk (black veil), the there was a lull in the shelling and peace in the city for the rest of the day and for the following night. The artillery fire resumed near Lugansk on Wednesday, destroying many buildings and taking many lives.