Ukraine, April 19, 2024
Photo: orthodox.cn.ua A number of men and women of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church received monastic tonsures this week, as the Church continues its journey through Great Lent.
The Information-Education Department of the UOC reports on the tonsure of nine people, including several tonsures into the Great Schema.
On Tuesday, His Eminence Metropolitan Kliment of Nezhin tonsured three nuns of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Gustynya, Chernigov Province, into the Great Schema—the highest degree of monasticism.
The nuns received the new names Archelaya, Rachel, and Vassa.
On Wednesday, on the day when the Church read the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, a great example of the ascetic life, monastic tonsures were celebrated in three different monasteries.
At the St. Nicholas Convent in Mukachevo, four women were tonsured as stavrophore nuns, receiving the names Spyridona, Valeria, Nadia, and Antonia.
At the Holy Trinity Monastery in Richka, Khust Province, His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Khust celebrated the Presanctified Liturgy, followed by the riassaphore tonsure of Novice Arseny.
“Monasticism is an institution of the Church, which people view as the ideal of fulfilling the Gospel commandments,” Met. Mark said.
“According to St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), monks are martyrs… Just as martyrs went to physical suffering, so monks spend their entire lives fighting a spiritual struggle with evil spirits, with the world, and people.”
The metropolitan continued:
Today, crawling on his knees to the altar of the Lord, Arseniy began to ask for a special cross, the cross of monastic life. And having renounced the world, he became free from the slavery of this sinful world. He embarked on a path of struggle with sin, and it is this struggle that will give the great freedom not to commit sin, to become perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and in the end, to become a saint...
And at the at the Archangel Michael Convent in Odessa, His Eminence Archbishop Viktor of Artsyz, vicar of the Odessa Diocese, read the full Canon of St. Andrew with the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, after which he tonsured one novice as a riassaphore nun.
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