Saint Mother Maria Skobtsova

Martyr at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

"BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH,
AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE CROWN OF LIFE."
Revelation 2: 10

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Mother Maria Skobtsova (3.3 Mb)

Presented by the Ecumenical University
of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Lviv, Ukraine

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"Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood face to face with the problems of this century."

The late +Anthony (Bloom), Metropolitan of Sourozh and Great Britian

PRAYER TO SAINT MARIA
MARTYR OF RAVENSBRUCK
O Saint Maria, while you lived among us, you showed us that obedience to the will of God is the path to the Kingdom of heaven. Though the world was engulfed in war and had forgotten the ways of God, you never ceased to care for the sick, the homeless, the weak and the spiritually lost. You did not let the coldness of hatred enter into your being, but showed compassion toward all God's children. Now, O faithful witness of Christ our God, look down from your heavenly abode upon those who raise their voice to you in prayer. Intercede for us before the Throne of God, that we may be strengthened in love for God and love for our neighbor. Grant us the grace to see God's image in every human being. Through word and deed, you taught us to be patient in suffering, joyful in time of adversity, and to put one's trust in God's providence at all times, at every place and in each circumstance during our lifetime. Grant us to see our countless voluntary and involuntary sins. Renew our faith and trust in the Living God and His forgiveness. At the hour of our death, take us by the hand, granting us the courage to stand before the awesome judgement seat of Christ. May we be counted worthy of the joy of the eternal Kingdom awaiting all those Who love Christ with their whole hearts. Amen.
(Repeat this short prayer three times)
We extol you, O holy Martyr Maria, and we honor your precious sufferings, which you endured for the sake of Christ our God.

If you have been aided in anyway through the intercession of Saint Maria of Ravensbrück; first, give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings granted to you through the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Second, please communicate with us the way she was able to assist you in your life, even if it is in a small way. Third, tell others about the life of Saint Maria and how she lived the Gospel of Christ, even to the point of martyrdom. She practiced the essentials of the Christian life in simplicity and invites us to do the same.

TROPARION Tone 4 - You became a bride of Christ, O venerable Mother, * and offered your body and soul to Him as a living sacrifice. * You exposed the evil side of humanity's ways * by allowing the light of the Resurrection to shine forth from you. * We celebrate your memory in love. * O Martyr and Confessor Maria, * pray to Christ our God that He may save our souls.
KONDAKION Tone 6 - You became an instrument of divine love, O holy martyr Maria, * and taught us to love Christ with all our being. * You conquered evil by not submitting yourself into the hands of the destroyer of souls. * You drank from the cup of suffering. * The Creator accepted your death above any other sacrifice * and crowned you with the laurels of victory with His mighty hand. * Pray fervently that nothing may hinder us from fulfilling God's will * because you are a bright star shining in darkness!

OFFICIAL PROPERS
TROPAIRE
Ton 1 Par les souffrances que les saints ont endurées pour Toi * sois emploré, Seigneur,* et guéris toutes nos maladies: * nous t’en prions, ô Ami des hommes.

KONTAKION
Ton 8. Sur: Commes premices: Comme témoins de la vérité, et prédicateurs de la piété,* honorons dignement par des chants divinement inspirés * Dimitri, Marie, Georges et Elie,* ayant supporté les liens, les souffrances et l’injuste jugement,* et que par les martyre ont reçu la couronne inflétrissable.

At my request, the official Tropar and Kondak were translated from the French by Peter Roche de Coppens, Professor Emeritus at East Stroudsburg University.
TROPAR Tone 1 - Through the sufferings which the saints have endured for Your sake, O Lord, * we beseech You to heal all of our infirmities, O Good Friend of Man.

KONDAK
Tone 8 - As witnesses of truth and preachers of piety,* let us worthily honor through divinely inspired chants: * Dimitri, Maria, George and Elias, * who have borne the sufferings, * the bonds and unjust judgment, * in which like the martyrs * have received the imperishable crown.

Canon in honor of Saint Maria Skobtsova

PRAYER TO OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST
IN HONOR OF THE MARTYRS

O Jesus, our only sure Hope,
when we are reviled in Your Name,
do not let evil overcome our hearts.
When we are cursed, let us conquer with goodness.
When we are ridiculed, teach us to bless.
When ill is spoken of us, may our tongue sing out praise.
When people take advantage of us,
let us never reciprocate with vengeance.
When we are hated because of our belief in You,
let our prayer be of forgiveness and love.
When others speak lies about us, let truth be our shield.
When we are persecuted for Your sake,
do not allow our hearts to become cold
with hatred for our persecutors.
When we are robbed of our dignity,
let us surrender our lives completely to You.
When we are at the end of our earthly life,
pardon our sins and have mercy on us.
Amen.

My prayer appeared in the March 1998 edition of "The Orthodox Herald" Hunlock Creek, PA.

+

Articles by Mother Maria

"Types of Religious Lives"
A recent translated work.

"Two Types of Love"

Veneration of the Mother of God

Concerning the Emulation of the Mother of God

Icons and Embroideries made by Mother Maria

Take me to the Mother Maria Links Page and the Foreign Language resources.

Click hereto join the "Skobtsova" list on E-Groups!

"Another angel came and stood at the altar with a gold censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God."
- Revelation 8: 3-4

"The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: 'But as many as received Him, He gave them the power to be made sons of God....' Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. Let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory."
-Saint John of Damascus (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book 4)

"The Church has no power to "make saints." She can only recognize them and render them a proper homage. Many saints, we know, are never "canonized," but their eternal glory in the eyes of God is not diminished if men failed to see their glory. When the recognition of a saint is obviously possible, when it appears as a necessity and as evidence to generations of contemporaries, the Church renders thanks to God for His mercy in revealing to us His mighty acts: such a recognition, or "canonization," is a grace to us, not the saint himself, who does not need human glory. In a canonization, it is we who acquire the opportunity to ask for his intercession. In the Orthodox Church recognition of new saints generally starts with popular veneration and acceptance. Only then does the hierarchy act -- after careful study and patient examination -- to permit a solemn liturgical glorification."
-The Very Reverend John Meyendorff, The Orthodox Church
Newspaper, April 1969

" The Orthodox idea of the communion of saints.....is a chain of mutual love and prayer; and in this loving prayer the members of the Church on earth, 'called to be saints', have their place. In private an Orthodox Christian is free to ask for the prayers of any member of the Church, whether canonized or not. In public worship, however, the Church usually prays only to those whom it has officially proclaimed as saints; but in exceptional circumstances a public cult may become established without any formal act of canonization. The Greek Church under the Ottoman Empire soon began to commemorate the New Martyrs in its worship, but was in most cases something that arose spontaneously under popular initiative. The same thing has happened in recent years with the New Martyrs of Russia: in certain places, both within and outside the Soviet union, they have begun to be honored as saints in the Church's worship......"
-The Orthodox Church Timothy Ware,(later consecrated as Bishop Kallistos of Great Britain) Penquin Books, 1963

"The blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the Church."
-Tertullian (+220 A.D.)

"A martyr -Greek: a witness- is a person who, for the Christian faith, freely and patiently suffers death at the hands of a persecutor. A martyr chooses to die rather than deny his faith by word or deed; he suffers patiently, that is, after the example of Christ, he does not resist his persecutors; he suffers death at the hand of one who, though he may assign some other reason, really acts through hatred of the Christian religion or of some Christian virtue. The early Christians, who bore witness to the truth of those facts upon which Christianity rests, were liable at any time to be given a choice between death and denial of their testimony. Many of them, refusing to deny Christ, actually suffered death. Thus the name martyr, which in the very beginning of the Christian era meant a witness of Christ, was after a while given to those alone who suffered death for the faith."
-The Catholic Encyclopedia Dictionary, 1929

"The testimony of deeds is more likely to be believed
than the testimony of words."
-Saint John Chrysostom (+407)

"Christianity is nothing more than the imitation of Christ."
-Saint Basil the Great (+379)

"A true Christian so behaves in this life
that it may prepare him for the life to come."
-Saint John of Kronstadt (+1908)

"Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men's needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God."
-Saint John Maximovitch II of San Francisco (+1966)

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
-Victor Frankel

"All our riches and glory and honor are like a meal ended by death. From this meal, no one takes a single crumb into the other world. Blessed is he who has grasped that the soul is the only one of his possessions that can be stolen by no one and nothing, even death. Such men think only of three realities: death, the soul, and God the judge."
-Saint Nicholas of Zica-

"The name of Mother Maria Skobtsova came up repeatly during the conference and we felt as the week progressed that she was very close to us. Her utter self-giving for the care and salvation of everyone who came her way in World War II France was especially inspiring: Russian students needed a mother, homeless women needing a place to stay, Jews and many others fleeing persecution needing shelter and a hiding place - all came under the wing of her love and compassion. In the end, she gave her life for her friends. She is a holy woman of our day, a model for us, one who lived in our century and in a culture
and under conditions that are familiar to us."
-Remarks at a conference "Discerning the 'Signs of the Times': Women in the Life of the Orthodox Church", Istanbul, Turkey, May 10-17, 1997. Excerpted from "Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church: Called to Holiness and Ministry" Kyriaki Karidoyanes Fitzgerald, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline, MA, 1998

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Saint Mother Maria Skobtsova

Martyr at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

"BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE CROWN OF LIFE." Revelation 2: 10

* * * * * * * FILM * * * * * * * Saints Among Us SeriesMother Maria Skobtsova (3.3 Mb)

Click play to begin.

"Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood face to face with the problems of this century."

The late +Anthony (Bloom), Metropolitan of Sourozh and Great Britian

At my request, the official Tropar and Kondak were translated from the French by Peter Roche de Coppens, Professor Emeritus at East Stroudsburg University.