Jerusalem, April 18, 2024
Photo: missionrocor.ru
On the Sunday of St. John Climacus, April 14, the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) celebrated the 25th anniversary of its abbess.
Mother Elisabeth (Smelic) was appointed the fifth abbess of the convent by resolution of the ROCOR Holy Synod in 1999. She was formally elevated to the rank on the Sunday of St. John Climacus that year by His Eminence Metropolitan (then Archbishop) Mark of Berlin, reports ROCOR’s Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
The convent is home to the wonderworking relics of the Grand Duchess and New Martyr Elizabeth and her faithful companion Nun Barbara.
“Over these years, Mother Elisabeth continues to faithfully shepherd her sisters and diligently leads them along the thorny monastic path in the difficult circumstances of Russian Palestine in Israel.”
Following the Sunday Divine Liturgy, the head of the Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), presented Mother Elisabeth with a Synodal Gramota that reads:
In consideration of the diligent and many years of work in managing the monastery of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in the holy and very important place of Russian Gethsemane in the Holy City of Jerusalem and in connection with the silver jubilee of being abbess of this monastery, which is now being celebrated, we express our deep gratitude to you and invoke God’s blessing upon you.
In testimony to this, we have given you this Gramota, duly signed by us and affirmed by the Synodal seal in the God-saved city of New York on the Sunday of the Cross and the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, March 25/April 7, 2024.
In the video below, the nuns receive the blessing of their beloved abbess:
Learn more about the monastery in the article, “The Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, Jerusalem.”
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