[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: The Nun Who Fought the Nazis

[John MacMillan]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Spiritual Wanderlust <hello at spiritualwanderlust.org>
Date: Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Subject: The Nun Who Fought the Nazis
To: <met191970 at gmail.com>


5 Lessons in Resistance from Mother Maria
Skobtsova ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
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[image: Mother Maria Skobtsova]





*There once was a nun who refused to be tamed.*



She was a twice-divorced, twice almost-executed, chain-smoking, anarchist
Orthodox nun who smuggled Jews out of WW2 Paris–and died in solidarity with
them.



And lately, through the cracks of my shattered heart, Mother Maria has been
showing me what it looks like to resist fascism with a fierce, maternal
heart.



If she was able to be a beacon of hope in the midst of hell, then it must
be possible for me, too.



Here are five lessons I’ve learned from this maverick matriarch, lifted
from her own playbook for resistance. (Number 4 gets me every time.)



But first - who was she?



Meet Mother Maria Skobtsova



Born in 1891 Russia, Mother Maria (born Elizaveta ‘Liza’ Pilenko) spent her
prime years in the hotbed of the Bolshevik revolution. An atheist, poet,
and political activist, Liza immersed herself in the intellectual world of
St. Petersburg. However, their revolutionary ideas didn’t go far enough for
this young idealist. She didn’t want to just discuss social change–she
wanted to make it happen.



She found an active dedication to the poor in the unlikeliest of places:
the Gospels. She converted to Orthodoxy and became the first woman to
attend seminary in St. Petersburg.



Meanwhile, the revolutionaries were gaining power. Through a series of
events, Liza was installed as the mayor of her town. (As a 27 year old
woman! In 1918 Russia!) Violence and catastrophe was all around them. As
she tried to maintain the city’s infrastructure, the White Army arrived.
She was arrested for collaborating with the enemy and put on trial to be
executed.



In court, standing before her accusers, she boldly defended her own case,
declaring: “My loyalty was not to any imagined government, but to those
whose need of justice was greatest, the people. Red or White, my position
is the same—I will act for justice and for the relief of suffering. I will
try to love my neighbor.”



By some miracle, her life was spared. She knew she needed to get her family
out of Russia.




1. Transform Grief Into Love



Together with her husband, mother, and children, Liza fled to Georgia,
Turkey, Yugoslavia, and finally France. After all the horrors they had
survived, Liza’s tipping point came with the illness of her young daughter,
Nastia. After spending weeks by her hospital bed, Nastia died. Liza was
absolutely devastated.



Later, she would try to put the experience into words. Loss, she wrote,

"throws open the gates into eternity, while the whole of natural existence
loses its stability and its coherence. Yesterday's laws are abolished,
desires fade, meaninglessness displaces meaning, and a different, albeit
incomprehensible Meaning, causes wings to sprout on one's back…

Before the dark pit of the grave, everything must be reexamined."



As she reexamined her own life, Liza's heart opened in a new way. Rather
than allowing grief to paralyze her, she sank to the bottom and there found
a new identity. After her daughter’s burial, Liza became "aware of a new
and special, broad and all-embracing motherhood." She felt she saw a "new
road before me and a new meaning in life, to be a mother for all, for all
who need maternal care, assistance, or protection."



Haltingly and imperfectly, Liza grew into this new identity. She began to
seek out those most ostracized by French society–people with addictions,
mental illness, or the thousands of emigrèes looking for a safe haven.



Her tender, maternal heart soon became known throughout Paris. People lined
the streets just to talk to her, eager to find this woman who would make
them feel heard. She welcomed each person as if they were her own child.
Not only did she invite them into her growing community house, but each
night she ventured out—under bridges, into brothels—to find the most
vulnerable and offer them refuge from the harshness of the world.



*Reflect:*

Liza’s grief became the foundation for her life’s work. It was fueled by
love for those most in need. When faced with tragedy, we too can find
deeper purpose by letting our pain awaken our compassion. *How might you
let your sorrow spark love and action in your own life?*




2. Everyone is an Icon



Eventually, the local bishop heard of Liza’s social work and suggested she
found a new sort of monastery. By this time, she had been separated from
her second husband for years. The bishop facilitated their divorce and
within weeks Liza made her profession as a nun, taking the name Maria.



As a newly minted monastic, Mother Maria knew she wanted to “live the life
of paupers and tramps”—a very different lifestyle from the typical Orthodox
monastery. Instead of retreating into a life of prayer, she opened house
after house of hospitality.



Her work revolved around a single belief: “each person is the very icon of
God incarnate in the world.” She meant this quite literally. For Orthodox
Christians, icons are venerated as a sort of window into eternity, into the
Mystery of mysteries.



Mother Maria wondered why we don’t turn that same veneration to the humans
around us.



God is incarnate in each person, she wrote. And we need to

“accept this awesome revelation of God unconditionally, to venerate the
image of God in [our] brother. Only when [we] understand that, will yet
another mystery be revealed to [us] -- one that will demand [our] most
dedicated efforts… [We] will perceive that the divine image is veiled,
distorted and disfigured by the power of evil... And [we] will want to
engage in battle with the devil for the sake of the divine image."



In other words: the suffering of a refugee, a queer person, a single mom
working three jobs–should compel us to offer our “most dedicated efforts,”
for each person reveals the face of the suffering Christ.



Now the extent to which she reverenced the image of God in every person
would raise many an eyebrow in Orthodox circles. As her community grew, she
was known to attend liturgy the least, and when she did, would frequently
arrive late or leave early as soon as a guest came knocking at the door.



But Mother Maria had no patience for performative religion. "Piety, piety,
but where is the love that moves mountains?" While people were concerned
with their personal prayer life, Christ went hungry and abused in the
streets.



“Social endeavors should be just as much of a liturgy as any communion,” she
wrote.



*Reflect:*

Every human is an icon of God. A window into the Holy of Holies. For Mother
Maria, this mystery tied together the Incarnation.



In her words: “It is necessary to understand that Christianity demands of
us not only the mysticism of communion with God, but also the mysticism of
communion with people.”



How can we live in the fruitful tension of the both/and?



Both contemplative *and* active

Both ritual *and* solidarity

Both practice *and* organize

Both human *and* divine




3. Oppression is a Call to Solidarity



In 1942, the Nazis mandated Jews to wear the Star of David. Throughout
Europe, many Christians looked the other way. The law didn’t apply to them,
so therefore it wasn’t a Christian problem, right?



Mother Maria had no time for such terrible theology. “There is no such
thing as a Christian problem,” she shot back. “Don’t you realize that the
battle is being waged against Christianity? If we were true Christians, we
would all wear the star. The age of confessors has arrived.”



There is no neutrality in the face of grave injustice. As the adage goes,
all that it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.



*Reflect:*

How might we join in solidarity with those who are most impacted by the new
cascade of policies? Our actions might not be grandiose. It could be as
simple as taking an unhoused person to lunch, or checking in with your
refugee center to see what they need most.



Because what is a Christian if not seeing yourself in the most vulnerable?




4. Enough Talk. Act.



As a teenager, Liza became enamored with the revolutionary spirit. As a
poet and blossoming intellectual, she joined philosophers and artists in
talking late into the night, dreaming of a new world.



However, it didn’t take her long to grow tired of ideas.



"My spirit longed to engage in heroic feats, even to perish, to combat the
injustice of the world," she recalled. She didn’t see her intellectual
friends taking action; their thirst for justice seemed satiated by all
their ethereal plans they laid in the wee hours of the morning.



Thus, when the Nazi occupation began, Mother Maria wasted no time in doing
what she knew how to do.



When the mass arrests began, she organized a fundraiser to support the
spouses and children of those left behind. Then they created escape routes
to southern France.



When Jews started coming round asking for falsified baptismal certificates,
the answer was always yes.



When 13,000 Jews were arrested and detained in a sports stadium for five
days before they were sent to Auschwitz, she worked with sanitation workers
to smuggle out children in trash bins.



And when Gestapo officers began knocking on her monastery door looking for
Jews, she would simply show them an icon of the Mother of God.



*Reflect:*
Mother Maria acted together with others. Like us, she wasn’t always sure of
the best way to help. But she connected with the vulnerable, loved them
like a mother, and responded to their needs.



Today, when we are tempted to scream into the void of social media or rage
about policies–let’s not forget that acting and serving is what will bring
about change.



How?



Consider:

   - Contacting your representative to share your discontent. They need to
   hear from you. (It concretely, statistically makes a difference.)
   - Asking local churches and charities who is organizing support for the
   families of people who have been deported
   - Donating to international relief organizations who are working to heal
   the gashes left by war


It is normal to feel overwhelmed. But Mother Maria’s life shows us that
action doesn’t have to be grand to make a difference. *Start with where
your feet are planted, and listen to the needs around you. *




5. Fortify Each Other in Community



In 1943, Mother Maria and her co-conspirators were arrested. She was sent
to the camp at Ravensbruck, where she survived for two years before being
killed.



To the very end, this anarchist nun was a blaze of love. Survivors recount
how she was “full of good cheer” and became a mother to many, leading
clandestine discussion groups and comforting her fellow prisoners.



“She took us under her wing,” said one, “and had an enormous influence on
us all.”



One survivor, Sophia Novich, recalled:

“I once said to Mother Maria, that it was more than a question of my
ceasing to feel anything whatsoever. My very thought processes were numbed
and had ground to a halt.



‘No, no,’ Mother Maria responded, ‘Whatever you do, continue to think. In
the conflict with doubt, cast your thought wider and deeper. Let it
transcend the conditions and the limitations of this earth.’”



With maternal fierceness, she helped her fellow campmates keep their
spirits alive even as their bodies wasted away. By anchoring their minds in
conversation, she “provided an escape from the hell in which we lived.
[She] allowed us to restore our depleted morale, [and] rekindled us, the
flame of thought, which barely flickered beneath the heavy burden of
horror.“



Even in the darkest hour, Mother Maria continued to radiate with defiant
love. She helped others grasp their interior freedom–a place where no man
could enter.



*Reflect:*
Today, it is easy to succumb to the “shock and awe” of the daily headlines.
However, we can’t afford to get lost in numbing bewilderment. The immensity
of pain is much more likely to turn to trauma in our bodies when we try to
process it alone. We need each other to lean on.



Our medicine, to receive and to be for one another, is grounded tenderness,
steady conversation, and even the fortifying mercy of levity. Like Mother
Maria.



—



Like a good Russian mother, Maria loved with a ferocity. The image of her
turning away Nazi officers with a painting of the mother of God is
emblazoned in my mind. It is an icon that reveals the meeting point of
justice and mercy.



Perhaps what is most helpful about this image is that we can resist with
love. I don’t know about you, but as much space as I give to my emotions
(horror, rage, heartache)–sometimes I need a fierce mother to grab my face
and say “This is what they want. To numb you with horror. But you have your
mind. You have your heart. And you have a community of people who are
hurting. Sink to the bottom and find your motherhood.



Now go. Love people back to their senses.”



While my heart and the world burns, Mother Maria shows me that that flame
can be channeled into a passionate, active love.



Perhaps the deepest lesson is that love, even in its most rebellious form,
is the fiercest form of resistance.



–

Want to immerse yourself in Mother Maria’s fierce love
<https://email.kjbm.spiritualwanderlust.org/c/eJx8kMFu3CAQhp8GLlUsGIPxHDi0Sl313N4tDLO7JLZxAafN21dOdqWq2vbI9838aH63bePqFrLP7slN8aHUlOmU01rLw5ZT2H2NaeXBtpPqiThZaZRAaTopOS0uzmOgOb5Qfh1jsIAGDoVwsweUWvWIoNSVLVSKO9NYXzey72jKyQXvSr2OZCppz57u7hf6sdP6Lm9on97SPh-vT3-F3TMXKyeHSAJPAAS9dh6FACCBvlPBe8OjBQFatAIkyBZ0A63vFSp1CgbRaWJKPD9NS1O2mGPd3fzTrYHyvJfapHzms73UuhXWfmQwMBiKv6Q0_2ucweAYDCBVLwBRGgaD_2LU8uvxO79VVuhYGUNaXFztf3_PdqEqUaIRTInzcX7j08Iz-bhFWutbt1p3UiOYlpdYr3Ur00nd9S2v9lus9OHrI4P2D_xi4XcAAAD__4OlvJQ>?
Join us for our upcoming mini retreat March 8. The world-renowned Rowan
Williams will be teaching LIVE (did you know Mother Maria is his favorite
modern saint??). It’s wildly affordable, and the recording will be made
available afterwards.



If, like me, you need concrete anchors of hope during this year, this is a
gathering you won’t want to miss.


Learn from Mother Maria
<https://email.kjbm.spiritualwanderlust.org/c/eJx8kMFu3CAQhp8GLlUsGIPxHDi0Sl313N4tDLO7JLZxAafN21dOdqWq2vbI9838aH63bePqFrLP7slN8aHUlOmU01rLw5ZT2H2NaeXBtpPqiThZaZRAaTopOS0uzmOgOb5Qfh1jsIAGDoVwsweUWvWIoNSVLVSKO9NYXzey72jKyQXvSr2OZCppz57u7hf6sdP6Lm9on97SPh-vT3-F3TMXKyeHSAJPAAS9dh6FACCBvlPBe8OjBQFatAIkyBZ0A63vFSp1CgbRaWJKPD9NS1O2mGPd3fzTrYHyvJfapHzms73UuhXWfmQwMBiKv6Q0_2ucweAYDCBVLwBRGgaD_2LU8uvxO79VVuhYGUNaXFztf3_PdqEqUaIRTInzcX7j08Iz-bhFWutbt1p3UiOYlpdYr3Ur00nd9S2v9lus9OHrI4P2D_xi4XcAAAD__4OlvJQ>
[image: Rowan Williams next to Mother Maria Skobtsova]
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