Oxford, October 23, 2026
Photo: archeveche.eu
After nearly all her adult life as a nun, much of it spent as a recluse devoted to prayer, Mother Elena (Brooks) has been tonsured into the Great Schema, the highest stage of monastic life.
His Grace Bishop Augustine of Taldom of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Moscow Patriarchate) performed the tonsure on Thursday, September 24, the feast of St. Silouan the Athonite. The service took place at the parish of St. Nicholas in Oxford, in the Diocese of Sourozh of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Archdiocese reports.
Fr. Stephen Platt, the parish priest, and Igumen Theophan (Willis) were in attendance, along with several monks and nuns who came to support Mother Elena, including Mother Sophronia of the Monastery of the Protecting Veil in Bussy, France.
In his address to her, Bishop Augustine said the Church was “enveloped in a double joy” that day, celebrating both St. Silouan’s feast and her tonsure. He described the Great Schema as a second Baptism and a new crucifixion rather than a spiritual retirement or a medal for long service. After decades of giving the Lord her youth and strength, he said, Christ was now inviting her deeper into the desert of the heart.
The bishop held up St. Silouan as her guide, a simple monk who worked in the monastery mill yet reached the heights of theology through Christ’s meekness and lowliness. Bishop Augustine recalled the words the Lord gave St. Silouan in his despair: “Keep your mind in hell, and despair not.”
For Mother Elena, he said, that means standing before God each day as a beginner, never trusting her past labors, and trusting in the mercy of the Bridegroom Who has called her by name.
St. Silouan’s tears of intercession for the whole world, the bishop said, are now her primary obedience. Hidden behind her veil, she’s called to be an unquenchable flame of prayer, carrying the world’s sorrows to the altar of her soul.
“As you step forward today to die to yourself once more, know that you do not walk alone,” he told her. St. Silouan stands with her, he added, and the Mother of God covers her with her protection.
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