Maria of Olonets: Desert Dweller of the Northern Forests

Publication Data: Platina, CA/Wildwood, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood/St. Xenia Skete, 1996
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 111
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.0 cm × 13.4 cm × 0.8 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 0‒938635‒74‒3

   
Bishop Nikodim of Belgorod

Volume 2 of Modern Matericon Series: God-Pleasing Women

“Righteous Maria of Olonets was a typical representative of feminine aspirations in a ‘masculine’ land—the wild North of Russia. Both male and female ascetics conquered this wild land through prayer and monastic pioneering, cutting through unknown thickets in order to find a place suitable to satisfy their sense of beauty before God. These locations would inspire them to a life of deeper prayer and ascetic labors so as to be closer to God. This is how, historically, the movement of the ‘Northern Thebaid’ was formed. This movement was interrupted by a century of Westernization and then continued with the impetus of St. Paisius Velichkovsky and his disciples, who went as far north as Solovki.”
—“INTRODUCTION to the Second Edition”

CONTENTS

   INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
   INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION
Part I
   1. Desert Dwellers of the Northern Forests
   2. Maria of Peredino Village
   3. The St. Nicephorus Hermitage on Vazhe Lake
   4. Maria Leaves the North
   5. The Beginning of Desert Life
   6. The Persecuted Hermitess of Vazhe Lake
   7. The Journey to the South
   8. A Desert Refuge in the Caucasus
   9. A Final Hermitage in the North
Part II
   10. Elder Isaiah-Ignatius of St. Nicephorus Hermitage
   11. Anastasia of Padan
   12. Righteous Farmer Peter
   13. The Desert Dwellers of Olonets
Part III
   14. Women of God
   INDEX