October 30, 2013
Wayne, WV: New House Blessed at Nativity of the Mother of God Convent

On Friday, October 18, the feast of the Holy Hierarchs of Moscow, a new house was blessed and sanctified for the Nativity of the Mother of God Convent at Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV. The blessing was performed by monastery dean Hieromonk Alexander Frizzell, prayerfully accompanied by the monastery’s deputy abbot, Abbot Seraphim (Voepel), Nun Theodora, and the brethren.

On Pentecost Sunday, June 23rd of this year, the monastic living quarters and the candle workshop burned completely. Mother Theodora was forced to move, with only the clothes on her back and nothing else, to the monastery guesthouse. The buildings and everything in them were a total loss, except for two icons – one icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God ‒ the convent’s feast day ‒ and an icon of St. Panteleimon, the patron saint of Holy Cross Monastery.

Fr. Alexander was traveling with two other monastics in Russia at the time of the fire and received the news after serving Kneeling Vespers with His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill. After arriving at Holy Protection Khotkovo Convent, where he planned to serve for the Day of the Holy Spirit, he told Abbess Olympiada and her nuns about the fire, and they promptly gave him money and monastic clothing to take back to Mother Theodora. Later, he was able to buy additional monastic clothing in Moscow and re-clothe Mother Theodora upon returning to the monastery, since she was reduced to standing in church in her cassock and apostolnik.

The candle workshop was a fairly new building, the contents of which included specialized candle-dipping equipment from Greece, a large supply of beeswax and other candle-making materials. Thankfully, the building and its contents were insured. Mother Theodora is currently dipping candles the old-fashioned way in the basement of the guesthouse. A replacement workshop is being planned, with the replacement equipment being shipped from Greece.

Mother Theodora’s living quarters, however, were not insured. Since the monastic community moved to West Virginia in 2000, she has lived in an old decrepit trailer, appraised at "zero," while the contents themselves, though they may have had spiritual or sentimental significance, were of little value. She also lost some appliances and a computer, which she used in her duties as the monastery’s bookkeeper.

The new house was constructed near the site of Mother Theodora’s old convent, so that she could move from the guesthouse to her own monastic cell. Many benefactors helped with the construction costs and donations of new furniture for Mother Theodora’s house. A number of parishes of various jurisdictions took up collections for the cause and the three local Orthodox parishes – St. George Greek Church, Holy Spirit Antiochian Church, and Christ the Savior Church – organized a joint fundraising banquet with auctions and a musical program which netted over $6,000 for the convent.

Among the icons placed in the monastic cell of the convent is a hand-painted icon of the Mother of God "Joy of all who Sorrow," which many years ago survived a fire in a Philadelphia parish church and was moved to the parish in Millville, NJ. When the Millville parish closed, the Diocese gifted the icon to Mother Theodora. This precious icon stands in the newly rebuilt convent as a testament to the constant love and care the most pure Mother of God shows her unworthy servants, the American monastics of the latter days.

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