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St. Alexis Medvedkov, archpriest of Ugine (1934), Elias Fondaminskii (1942), Priest Demetrius Klepinine (1944), George Skobtsov (1944), and Nun Maria (Skobtsova) (1945), of Paris Commemorated on July 20 Mother Maria was born in Latvia in 1891. Like many of the
pre-Revolutionary Russian intelligenstia, she was an atheist and a political
radical in her youth, but gradually came to accept the truths of the Faith.
After the Revolution, she became part of the large Russian emigre population of
Paris. There she was tonsured as a nun by Metropolitan Evlogy, and devoted
herself to a life of service to the poor. With a small community of
fellow-believers, she established 'houses of hospitality' for the poor, the
homeless, the alcoholic, and visited Russian emigres in mental hospitals. In
1939 Metropolitan Evlogy sent the young priest Fr Dimitry to serve Mother
Maria's community; he proved to be a partner, committed even unto death, in the
community's work among the poor. When the Nazis took Paris in 1940, Mother
Maria, Fr Dimitry, and others of the community chose to remain in the city to
care for those who had come to count on them. As Nazi persecution of Jews in
France increased, the Orthodox community's work naturally expanded to include
protection and care of these most helpless ones. Father Dimitri was asked to
provide forged certificates of baptism to preserve the lives of Jews, and always
complied. Eventually, this work led to the arrest of Mother Maria, Fr Dimitri,
and their associates. A fragment survives of the Gestapo's interrogation of Fr
Dimitri: |
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