On September 1 we commemorate Abbess Maria (Ushakova; 1819–1904), who preserved for us the Fourth and final portion of the Mother of God on earth—Diveyevo Convent, organized by St. Seraphim of Sarov by the will of the Queen of Heaven Herself.
Abbess Maria (Ushakova)
Mother Maria was descended from the glorious Ushakov family, which gave us a number of saints, including military commanders.1 Although spiritual wars can be more intensive than military combat (where at least it is obvious who is your own and who is your enemy).
Elizaveta (the secular name of the future abbess) was a noble lady. Her widowed father trained four of his sons for military and civil service and raised his daughters for marriage and life in high society. And Liza2 met her father's expectations in full: she was witty, pretty, and played music masterfully until... she came across the works by St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Perhaps it was his famous book, A Spiritual Treasure Gathered from the World. I inspired her, and she realized that it was much more convenient to gather spiritual treasures in a convent. It was there that the bride-to-be, to her father's horror, came and asked to be admitted…
St. Seraphim of Sarov in the final years of his life. Lithograph by the sisters of Diveyevo Convent, 1879 She had already heard a lot about the wonderful life of the wonderworker of Sarov, Batiushka Seraphim, who had died ten years earlier. But about five years before his repose he had revealed to his cell attendant, Fr. Pavel from the Sarov brotherhood:
“Father, Diveyevo will not become real Diveyevo and nothing will be settled as it should be until the abbess will be Maria, and with the surname Ushakova!”
And at that time the bearer of this promising surname was still a playful teenager. Only later would she become outwardly surprisingly calm and unperturbed, so you would not get a word from her, and when she did say something, it was so weighty that secular and elderly people felt uncomfortable.
Her father, Alexei Nikolaevich, had no choice but to bless his twenty-five–year-old daughter with the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, which had belonged to their family for many generations, for the monastic path. And today Mother Maria helps those who seek monastic life.
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Asbbes Sergia (Konkova) This is what the current abbess of the Holy Trinity-St. Seraphim’s Convent in Diveyevo, Mother Sergia (Konkova), recounts:
“A sincere devotee of Abbess Maria was one of the sisters of our convent, Nun Maria, born Elizaveta Alexeyevna Khramova. Like the first abbess, she came to the convent out of fervent love for St. Seraphim and his community. Many years ago, after reading The Chronicles of St. Seraphim’s Diveyevo Convent, she decided to withdraw from the world without delay.
“She arrived at the convent late in the evening and knocked at the abbess’s house. I remember a lady in a beautiful coat with an arctic fox collar, with a piled-up hairstyle and tears in her eyes. She was clutching The Chronicles, which had inspired her, to her breast. Suddenly she knelt down and said, ‘I am here to labor for St. Seraphim. Please don’t turn me down!’ Thus her monastic path began.
“Just like Abbess Maria,3 who had once undergone difficult obediences, Elizaveta Alexeyevna did not shun any work. She labored in the convent’s greenhouses in Nizhny Novgorod, and this kind of obedience is hard. She constantly prayed to Abbess Maria, believing in her holiness, and according to her faith she received help in all things. Her secular name was the same as that of the first abbess, and at her tonsure she also received the name Maria.
“The death of Nun Maria Khramova was truly Christian and peaceful—on September 1, 2009, the anniversary of the repose of her beloved Abbess Maria.
“On the same day, the feast of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Don is celebrated. Nun Maria especially venerated it as well. She had cancer, but she labored selflessly until the final days of her life, never putting anything off till later. Once she even said: ‘I must do more, because I have less than a year to live...’”
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And here is the story of Novice Nun Nonna (Orlova):
“I was very seriously ill. The eldress of the Convent of the Kazan Icon in the village of Kolyupanovo in the Tula region, Nun Euphrosyne, did not bless me to have an operation, saying that I might not survive it, and my father-confessor confirmed her words. I endured for seven years, trying to cure myself with herbs, but the disease progressed.
“Taking a sick leave from work, I came to the convent. I saw an absolutely different life here. I stayed as a laborer for a year. I prayed at the relics of St. Seraphim and the other saints of Diveyevo. And I also asked Mother Maria, knowing about her holy life from The Chronicles of St. Seraphim’s Diveyevo Convent: ‘Mother Maria, you came from Tula, and so did I; your mother's name was Olympiada, and so was my mother’s name. Don’t turn me away, implore the Queen of Heaven to accept me at the convent. I really, really want this.’
“One day I was blessed to go to our dependency in Semkhoz4 near Moscow as obedience. The mother-superior, going to Moscow on business, took me with her. We were alone in the compartment. Mother Sergia asked me about my life and my family. After learning about my nineteen-year-old daughter, she was surprised and worried how such a young girl could live on her own. When she heard about my desire to join the convent, she said resolutely that until my daughter’s life was settled there could be no question of me becoming a novice…
“My condition was deteriorating. I was afraid that I might be sent home. I prayed to Mother Maria, coming to the conclusion that I would not survive an operation unless I was healed, which I asked for in my prayers. And everything was sorted out in the best possible way…
“The abbess blessed me to be taken to the hospital of the city of Arzamas (the Nizhny Novgorod region) to see a religious doctor who treated many sisters. The operation was extremely complicated, as the doctor said later.
“When it was time for me to be re-examined after the operation, Abbess Sergia said unexpectedly, ‘She should be given the monastic clothing...’ And on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God I became a novice at St. Seraphim’s Convent in Diveyevo. Mother Maria fulfilled all of my requests.”
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Abbess Maria (Ushakova) In her time, Elizaveta Alexeyevna Ushakova herself, abandoning everything, without any hesitation joined the then little-known Diveyevo community, which was being torn apart by the enemy.
The pseudo-novice Ivan Tikhonovich Tolstosheyev, who pretended to be Father Seraphim’s “beloved spiritual child", had influence in the Synod and at the royal court, met with royalty, ladies-in-waiting, and bossed around the local bishop, who had been appointed by his patronage. He exhausted “St. Seraphim’s orphans” with senseless and hard work, deprived them of all things, promoting his insolent proteges everywhere. He was ruining the ways and customs established by Father Seraphim at the will of the Queen of Heaven, destroying the buildings constructed with the elder’s blessing, closing his churches, while collecting fabulous sums in Seraphim’s name, including from the Royal Family, for the construction of a certain “royal skete” of his (to be called by his name). Morever, he intended to build it on the site where his son-in-law had raped one of the Diveyevo novices.
The power of the warfare was such that the powermonger openly compared himself to satan. And of the eleven consecutive abbesses who were constantly replaced by him some (including those faithful to Father Seraphim) could not stand it in human terms and became physically, and sometimes mentally, ill. "You will not live to see the antichrist, but you will go through the times of antichrist," Father Seraphim warned the sisters under his spiritual care.
And so, the imperturbable Elizaveta Alexeyevna Ushakova overcame the onslaughts of the enemy and his instigators. Shouldn’t we pray to her in times of the new tricks of antichrist? She became that very twelfth abbess foretold by St. Seraphim, under whom the convent was to become well-organized. “It will be done by the righteous mother,” as batiushka predicted, comforting those weeping shortly before his demise.
Humility alone wins. Elizaveta Alexeyevna did not even want to be an abbess, but suddenly she heard from the blind Elder Anthony of Ardatov (in schema: Arseny; 1762–1861), “You must be an abbess!” He also threatened her, “If you do not obey, then by God’s command you will be driven out of the convent, and there will be no salvation for you!” And she came to the then poorly organized community in Diveyevo, because Father Seraphim had told the sisters: “I, your father, will take care of you both in this age and in the age to come, and I will not abandon any of those who will live in my desert...”
But for their humility, as the eldresses explained later, they were all allowed to go through unprecedented trials, which had been seen in no other monastery or convent, as noted by the New Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov), the author of The Chronicles...
Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna immediately responded when Mother Elizaveta Alexeyevna was appointed mother-superior: “This one is real, she is ours.” And Eldress Praskovya (Parasceva) Semyonovna related:
“When I asked Mother Maria to give me some water from Father Seraphim’s well, she gave me some in a glass, and I said, ‘Make the sign of the cross over the water, mother!’ She answered me, ‘No, I can't make the sign of the cross over the water of such a bright lamp as Father Seraphim.’ Here she is—the true mother chosen by God for us! I gave her Father Seraphim’s portrait and said, ‘Stand firm, mother, and take heart! The Queen of Heaven and Father Seraphim will help you!’”
When soon there were attempts to remove the mother-superior by hook or by crook (although almost all of the 400 sisters wept and pleaded for her), the same eldress conveyed the following words via a novice:
“Mother, stand firm, take heart, and stand up for the truth. Be vigilant! All the Heavenly powers are coming here!”
This is how everything takes place in Diveyevo through prayers and intercession from above. The election of Elizaveta Alexeyevna as abbess took place on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles, in whose honor, after all the storms and temptations, the righteous abbess of Diveyevo would be tonsured.
These blessed eldresses, according to Father Seraphim’s testament, “struggled” all the time. Thus, at that time Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna once slapped the ruling hierarch in the face, and Blessed Praskovya Semyonovna “made some noise”: “O Judge! An unrighteous judge! A false judge! This judge is a money-gruber, a robber!” And Mother Maria was patient. She possessed her soul in patience (cf. Lk. 21:19), and thousands around her were saved. Over 1000 sisters would gather at her convent.
Protected by the Holy Hierarch Philaret (Drozdov), she was elevated to the rank of abbess by the Holy Hierarch Theophan (Govorov) the Recluse, and served for more than forty years, which were to the glory of the Fourth Portion of the Most Holy Theotokos on earth. By the way, it took place on the feast of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God…
To be continued…
