Fr. Sophrony Leaving her spiritually fruitful solitude in the Alps, Marie Madeleine, at the advice of her friend, went to Essex, where Fr. Sophrony lived after his forced move first from Mt. Athos, and then from France. She was thirty-eight at the time, so this was around 1984. The future meeting inspired her with great hopes and expectations, but everything turned out to be not as simple as she had imagined in her bright and inspired dreams. Fr. Sophrony was almost ninety, and his health, undermined by many years of ascetic labors, was very poor. In those years the elder had a completely clear and sober mind, but health did not always give him the chance to speak with numerous visitors. The arrival of the Frenchwoman, who was in an intense spiritual search, coincided with a period of his illness, so the elderly father-confessor had to remain in seclusion in his cell. The strict observance of this daily routine was ensured by his cell-attendants, who strictly forbade anyone to disturb the sick ascetic. Before their unyielding determination to protect their spiritual father from any unwanted intrusions, Marie Madeleine’s path, full of hopes, was almost cut short. She found herself in front of a locked door that was hiding from her the light of her whole future life, capable of illumining her path that lay in darkness and bringing her to the knowledge of the Truth.
For Marie Madeleine that meeting was so crucial and vital, because she felt the providential nature of the circumstances that led to it. The Lord had shown her the way to the elder in the most extraordinary manner, and now she was waiting for his guidance as the words of God Himself. No one could understand better than Fr. Sophrony what had happened to her over the years—their spiritual paths and experience were very similar in many ways. In his youth the elder, having accepted an enemy thought inspired by demonic Eastern spirituality, fell away from his extraordinary child’s faith, forcing himself to stop the grace-giving work of prayer in his soul. After spending seven years in such inner darkness of apostasy, he was called back to communion with God by a vision of Uncreated Divine Light, resulting in him becoming a monk at the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos, where, as he wrote later, “Divine Providence threw him to the feet of Elder Silouan.” Therefore, he was aware of the most deep fall that had occurred both with him and with Marie Madeleine, the regenerative effect of Divine Revelation, and all the bitterness of penitent tears shed from the awareness of offending by his unbelief the Love of Christ that surpasses human understanding. So, Marie, with the perseverance of the Canaanite woman from the Gospel, strove to get into the cell that was hiding Christ from her as the last hope of salvation.
So, she continued to persistently convince the elder’s cell-attendant that she really needed to see him, but he repeatedly answered her that it was absolutely impossible at that moment. They bickered and argued until the door to the cell suddenly opened and Fr. Sophrony appeared on its threshold. He was indeed very ill and weak, but his face shone with extraordinary joy and love. “It’s me!” he proclaimed triumphantly from the threshold, inviting his guest into his cell. There they had a conversation in which the elder supported Marie Madeleine’s desire to convert to Orthodoxy and gave her very important instructions that convinced her of the correctness of her chosen path. However, he deemed it impossible to perform the sacrament of Holy Baptism over her there in Essex. Fr. Sophrony explained to her that until recently they had so often received into Orthodoxy those who wished, that the local authorities began to accuse them of proselytism. There was the threat of possibly having to close the monastery in which they had invested so much labor and funds, and it was unthinkable to imagine a move from there to a new place, given its founder’s advanced age and poor health. Elder Sophrony so wanted to find his resting place there.
St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia
For this reason, Fr. Sophrony sent Marie Madeleine to another great Athonite elder, St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia, saying that he would arrange her future life according to the will of God. So she traveled from Essex to Greece with the prayers and blessing of the great twentieth century Russian ascetic, who was recently canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, under whose omophorion he was transferred in obedience to His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I (Simansky) of Moscow. Now her path lay through northeastern Attica, where between the towns of Oropos and Malakasa, near the small mountain village of Milesi, Elder Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) had built his hesychasterion in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. This monastery is situated almost opposite his native island of Euboea (Evia), which he left in his youth in order to begin his monastic path at the Kafsokalyvia Skete on Mt. Athos. A few years later he had to leave the skete due to a serious illness, after which he was the father-confessor of the Monastery of St. Charalampos close to his birthplace, and then for a long time he served at the hospital church of St. Gerasimos in Athens, where he acquired the gifts of clairvoyance and healing. In 1979 he founded a convent, where he struggled together with some like-minded nuns. At that time the elder was already very ill and could not be without care and help.
When Marie Madeleine arrived in Milesi, Fr. Porphyrios lay on his sickbed, but visitors were allowed to come up to him. In silence they would approach the prostrate elder, reverently kiss his hand as a sign of the silent blessing they had received, and step aside. The Frenchwoman who had just arrived at the convent was to do the same. However, when she approached the saint, he suddenly opened his very lively (although by that time almost blind) eyes and held her hand tightly. “Anchoress, anchoress!” he addressed her with the Greek word that wisely characterized her entire subsequent life’s path. They had a conversation, during which Fr. Porphyrios blessed her to go to Jerusalem and prepare there for the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Thus a new direction was determined in the spiritual journey of Marie Madeleine, which continued to guide her in the footsteps of her patron-saint—this time to her homeland, from whence her apostolic labors and great ministry of the spread of the Resurrection of Christ began.
Arriving in Jerusalem with the blessing of the Holy Elder Porphyrios, she was accommodated in one of the cells belonging to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and located in the patriarchate quarters. The complex of buildings belonging to the ancient Patriarchate of Jerusalem is in the northern part of the Old City on the site where, according to tradition, was the garden in which the Savior was buried. It occupies a fairly large area and is built on a hillside, so that its premises are on situated on different levels with regards the city streets. Therefore, can go through one gate and after walking a bit suddenly find yourself on flat roofs, passing into other quarters where churches or cells were built, and below, through the bars of the skylights, you can see the busy city streets with its endless crowds of a wide variety of people walking along them. The fathers of the Patriarchate accommodated the Frenchwoman who came to them to embrace Holy Orthodoxy in just such a cell. She lived there for several months, eagerly reading one theological or spiritual book after another. At night she went to services in the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher celebrated by clerics and monks of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher. These night services, which are usually attended only by monks of the the Brotherhood with doors closed to other visitors, are full of an unforgettable prayerful atmosphere, uplifting to the soul. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated there on the very spot where the Most Pure Body of Christ once lay, removed from Holy Golgotha and entombed for three days and three nights in the darkness of the burial cave, from where the Light of the Resurrection shone forth to the whole universe. Therefore, the devout Marie Madeleine tried not to miss a single precious night service at this greatest Shrine. In the afternoon, when there was a chance to rest after prayer, it was quite hard to do so because of the continuous noise of crowds of people on the street directly below her cell. Over the six months that Marie Madeleine spent in Jerusalem she almost never had the opportunity to get enough sleep and rest. However, despite constant fatigue and lack of sleep, she was happy and always thanked God for the time spent in the Holy City.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Finally the day arrived that Marie Madeleine had been so diligently preparing for and what the Lord had guided her to in His all-wise ways was fulfilled. She received the sacrament of Holy Baptism, and became an Orthodox Christian. Catholics who convert to Orthodoxy are usually received into the Church through repentance and a special rite of renunciation of all Latin false teachings and heresies. If a baptized Catholic for some reason has not been confirmed, he is received through the sacrament of Chrismation, which in Orthodoxy follows immediately after Baptism (while in Catholicism it is not given until the age of seven, like first Communion). But many Greek Orthodox ascetics, who believe that the most important teaching of the Most Holy Trinity was distorted in Catholicism, find that it is better to rebaptize those who are leaving the Roman Church in order to avoid any uncertainties.
As for Mary, she had never questioned the need to go through the Orthodox sacrament of Baptism, especially since she was still lamenting her past apostasy. So with great spiritual joy, after a long period of preparation, she was baptized in the holy waters of the Jordan where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself once established this Sacrament. She was baptized by a remarkable ascetic and long–time cleric of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Archimandrite Timothy, who for several decades was the abbot of the Monastery of the Twelve Apostles in the town of Tiberias—very near St. Mary Magdalene’s birthplace. Marie Madeleine was given this name Baptism, thus retaining a double name rare in the Orthodox tradition, as well as the spiritual bond with her Heavenly patroness. The Lord providentially and wisely guided this new Mary Magdalene back to the source from which the ministry of His faithful evangelizer once began. From France, where “seven demons” of all the sinful passions were cast out of her by repentance, through prayerful search for Him in the solitude of the Alps, and wanderings in Europe and Greece, to Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulcher and the place of the glorious Resurrection, and to Galilee, to the banks of the holy Jordan and to the surroundings of the former fishing center of Magdala. Of course, this was far from the end of her path—it was only the beginning.
