[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: The Nun Who Fought the Nazis
Jean Leahy
jeantleahy at gmail.com
Mon Mar 3 12:04:24 PST 2025
Powerful ! I had not heard of Mother Maria before. I too. like greg, was
touched by the seeing everyone as an icon. Jean
On Mon, Mar 3, 2025 at 8:37 AM Greg Gillis via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
> Dear John,
>
> Thank you for this at this time of such global violence and also when
> everything Russian is somehow being attacked. This is such an example of
> how the Gospel of nonviolence is to be lived and embodied. Remarkably, I
> had not heard of Mother Maria. Her story is so powerful and moving. She
> reminded me of Dorothy Day and her radical commitment to the Gospel of
> nonviolence and resistance to American militarism throughout her life. So
> powerful seeing every human being as an icon of the image of God and
> something we so often forget.
>
> Peace
>
> Greg
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 2, 2025 at 5:53 PM John MacMillan via Sundaycommunity <
> sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> ---------- 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
>> View in Web Browser
>> <https://email.kjbm.spiritualwanderlust.org/c/eJx8kUGP2ywQhn-NffmUCAYw5sBho3ypqh4qbaVmlYuFYeyQ2MYFvNv995V3E6mqtj3yPMPohdfMczOZEfXVXEzrNymHiF0MU06bOQa32OzDVDrNWl4jlqip5ERRWVFa4mj80Dgc_DPG18Y7DUrCqhTc7Qqp4LVSwPmNjZiS6bHJrzPqd9TGYJw1Kd9GIqawRIsf3k_4Y8HpXd7R0r5t-3897f5Y9pE564pUrWiVZLXshHO1qglBKwxKqHkNrPQaCAjCCFCgDMQWmK254rxzUikjsODkemnHbZp99Hkxw4uZHMZhSXkbYl8O-pzznAr2UMChgEOy5xCGv40XcMACDruHs9xdwvF0pGdz_NmdPn1P5uk02GnozPExfXnpH5--dnHXPxQg2H6zEV0tCTBnDTJSIZcoOe_WkEBbZVhVs0oRqAp2SFc_N3bw9trkaOzVT33B9jkuWN5LSbiGalwYjZ_0P98X9YiZKqokKTjp1w_e2jCWEa2fPU75rT0hKioUSFYmn2-FcllRUdWszPqbz_jf530B7Df8rOFXAAAA__83fdzg>
>>
>> [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]
>> <https://email.kjbm.spiritualwanderlust.org/c/eJx8kMFu3CAQhp8GLlUsGIPxHDi0Sl313N4tDLO7JLZxAafN21dOdqWq2vbI9838aH63bePqFrLP7slN8aHUlOmU01rLw5ZT2H2NaeXBtpPqiThZaZRAaTopOS0uzmOgOb5Qfh1jsIAGDoVwsweUWvWIoNSVLVSKO9NYXzey72jKyQXvSr2OZCppz57u7hf6sdP6Lm9on97SPh-vT3-F3TMXKyeHSAJPAAS9dh6FACCBvlPBe8OjBQFatAIkyBZ0A63vFSp1CgbRaWJKPD9NS1O2mGPd3fzTrYHyvJfapHzms73UuhXWfmQwMBiKv6Q0_2ucweAYDCBVLwBRGgaD_2LU8uvxO79VVuhYGUNaXFztf3_PdqEqUaIRTInzcX7j08Iz-bhFWutbt1p3UiOYlpdYr3Ur00nd9S2v9lus9OHrI4P2D_xi4XcAAAD__4OlvJQ>
>> Unsubscribe
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