Ekaterinburg, February 8, 2021
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
The nuns of the St. Alexander Nevsky Novo-Tikhvin Monastery in Ekaterinburg held a “touching and bright celebration” on Friday, February 5, as the remains of the monastery’s last pre-revolutionary abbess were finally laid to rest at the holy habitation.
Schema-Abbess Magdalena (Dosmanova), who spent more than 85 years resting outside her beloved monastery, has now found her eternal rest by the altar of the monastery’s St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, reports the Diocese of Ekaterinburg.
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
A panikhida for the ever-memorable Mother Magdalena and the burial of her remains were celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Eugene of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursk.
Mother Magdalena. Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru Mother Magdalene headed the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery from 1897 to 1919. She continued to guide the nuns spiritually after the closure of the monastery, and the monastic community gathered around her continued until her repose in 1934, which she herself had foretold. She was buried in the cemetery by the Church of St. John the Baptist—one of the few in Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) that were still open at that time.
The sisters of the revived Novo-Tikhvin have long dreamed of having Mother Magdalena’s remains return to the monastery, and now their wish has been fulfilled with the blessing of the ruling hierarch and the consent of Mother Magdalena’s relatives.
The celebration on Friday began with Met. Eugene, the priests, and all the sisters of the monastery praying for the repose of Mother Magdalena’s soul in the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, followed by a solemn procession around the cathedral with her remains. Her body was then lowered into the grave located by the cathedral altar, next to the graves of four other abbesses.
“Today we have the same bright feeling as on Holy Saturday, when we pray at the Holy Shroud and listen to the prophecy of the Prophet Ezekiel about the Resurrection,” said Vladyka Eugene.
“And today, the ascetic, the worker of prayer, Mother Magdalene returned to her native monastery, where, of course, she wanted to rest, so that here she could wait for the day of Resurrection. And it’s no coincidence that she rested near the only church in the city during the years of godlessness. A stream of people passed by her grave, and she prayed for all of them, believers and non-believers. And now she’s praying for all of us,” His Eminence concluded.
The rite of burial ended with the singing of the Paschal troparion, “Christ is Risen!” The sisters all remained at the grave to venerate the cross and make 40 prostrations, according to monastic tradition.
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