Comments on: Seeking Guidance from Women Saints

By: Vara

Vara — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:13:55 +0000

There is such a wide palette to chose from, and there are holy ones alive today, especially in Russia. For instance, virtually all of the new monastic houses founded recently are headed by spiritual daughters of Abbess Varvara of Pyukhtitsa, the staritsa of Patriarch Aleksei.

Besides the usual monastic sources, there are many Orthodox women active in the arts and media, and often their work deals with Orthodox themes. Svetlana Yekimenko is a presenter with VOR, and she hosts “The Christian Mesaage from Moscow”. (gp tp http://www.ruvr.ru for mp3 podcasts of the programme) Tatiana Shvetsova is a talented radio/TV producer (her brother is the superior of an Orthodox monastery in Japan).

The artists Yulia Kuzenkova, Natalia Kurguzova-Miroshnik, Saida Afonina, and Maria Vishnyak (to name only a few of a large contingent) along with the bulk of their male colleagues, are moving Russian art back to a classical realism, abandoning the decadent abstract art indroduced in the early 20th century (in fact, one of the early artists to protest abstract art as meaningless was another female Russian artist, Natalia Goncharova (drat! there is no space to tell you of the “Donkey’s Tail”…).

These are just two fields, I could go on for much longer. In short, there is a great deal of good Orthodox work (and just plain good work period!) done by women, but, most of it is “invisible” because it is in Russian, not English. There is very little of quality available in English, that is why I advise converts to learn Russian, because it opens to them the doors of contemporary Orthodox creativity (which is virtually all in Russian, I am afraid).

Pray for thhis sinner.

Vara

By: DebD

DebD — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:01:14 +0000

This is such a wonderful idea. I get such inspiration from reading about the saints lives (although sometimes its a bit discouraging when they’re always “pretty” and always “pious” children).

I hope to keep up with this series, even if I’m a few days behind.

By: mamajuliana

mamajuliana — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:17:41 +0000

I always wondered why the women in the Titus 2 groups did not look more to Mary as an example. The groups that I was familiar with (an involved in for a while,) were very mentor based. Sort of mutual encouragement-but that did have it’s downfalls. I began to think that I had to run my home and do things exactly as other women in the group did.

That is why I like women saints! They came from such varied backgrounds! Strong women of faith and prayer AND Moms, wives, sisters, daughters!

I hope you write about Saint Juliana of Lazarevo…my patron saint. There was a Mom, wife and lover of God!