Nanuet, NY: Funeral for Abbess
Irene (Alexeev) held at Novo-Diveevo Convent
On Friday, January
10, the funeral for Abbess Irene (Alexeev) was held at Holy
Dormition Convent "Novo-Diveevo" in Nanuet, NY.
Abbess Irene was rectress of the convent, andreposed on
Wednesday, January 8, the feast of the Synaxis of the Mother of God. With
the blessing of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, the funeral
was led by His Eminence Gabriel, Archbishop of Montreal & Canada.
His Eminence was co-served by
monastery cleric Archpriest Alexander Fedorowski, New England dean Archpriest
George Larin, diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov, Archpriest George
Kallaur (rector of the Church of our Lady "Unexpected Joy" on Staten
Island, NY), Archpriest Ilya Gorsky (cleric of Holy Virgin Protection Church in
Nyack, NY), Archpriest Mark Burachek (rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in
Newark, NJ), Archpriest George Zelenin (rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral in
Paterson, NJ), and Priest Vladimir Kaydanov (cleric of St. George’s Church in
Howell, NJ). Praying in church were the recently orphaned sisters of
Novo-Diveevo Convent, as well as many pilgrims, who came to pay their last
respects to the Mother Abbess. The choir sang prayerfully under the direction
of monastery cleric Protodeacon Serge Arlievsky.
Upon conclusion of the
funeral, Archpriest George Zelenin addressed the faithful with the following
sermon:
In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! We have been orphaned today;
our convent has been orphaned. The sisters of this convent have been orphaned
first and foremost. But orphaned also are all of us who, while the Mother
Abbess was still alive, could come to her and receive more than anyone can
receive from someone steeped in wisdom and experience: we could receive not
only counsel, but also that which holds the entire world in place, which is
stronger than any life experiences: we could receive prayerful support, without
which it is impossible to survive in this life, and which is truly greater than
any merely human experience. Moreover, we have been orphaned because now we
feel as never before that, in the spiritual war being waged in this world, we
no longer have this reliable, very firm line of defense against the enemy of
mankind. There has been a breach in the front. And it would be good if we could
close this breach. But if not? What if we cannot attain this same experience of
prayer, this experience of the spiritual life, which is at all times eternal,
which unites all times, and of which the Mother Abbess was the standard? She
was born with the name Zoya in a simple Cossack family in 1922, in a small
Cossack military village on the banks of the Amur.
She was, from her
birth, a true picture of humility. She always maintained that her very life on
this earth was a miracle. It so happened that she was the fourth child born in
her family ‒ three children died in infancy, and she herself was born very
weak. But the Lord appointed for her a different path: she survived, and became
very strong. And her life was one of great hardship. We know and remember what
was taking place in 1922 in our homeland, especially in Siberia, especially in
the Amur region (Outer Manchuria), especially in those places. Her family was
not exempt from deep sorrows and tragedy. More than once she would share the
recollections of her father – an Amur Cossack, a warrior, a hero, a paramedic –
a healer of human bodies and of their souls, as well, because he was able to
raise her in the same spirit. She would recall how they fled after the
persecution of dekulakization, first to the neighboring village of Nikolskaya
where her grandmother lived, and later farther, in 1928, to Harbin, China. Here
began her travels and years of exile. She attended school there, and it was
there, after the death of her sister in 1946, that she came as a 24-year-old
girl to the monastery. The Mother-Abbess herself – and herein also lies a great
act of her humility – would share stories of her own blunders in life. But
these blunders revealed something entirely different – they revealed the
greatness of this person’s spirit. "The first day, when I came to the
convent – it was one of the more famous monasteries, of the four in Harbin (two
male, two female), named in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God ‒ I
entered the territory of the convent and did not know to whom to turn. I looked
and saw a nun lighting a samovar. I approached her and asked where I should go.
She did not respond. I stood there in silence. Much time went by, until someone
appeared and explained where I should go. Only much later would I come to find
out that the nun in question was deaf and dumb." But she, in her humility,
stood there, patiently waiting for someone to take notice, waiting for someone
to answer her question.
This was her
greatest trait – her humility, which conquered all in her life, and became her
lifelong companion. Even there, in the convent, all did not go swimmingly. We
do not now know the reasons, but for whatever reason the abbess at that time
was forced to leave the convent and live in the city. And she became her cell
attendant. In obedience she went, humbly, with the abbess and cared for her all
those years, until the Lord called away her spiritual instructress – Mother
Irene. For this reason there was great joy when then-Fr. Adrian
(the future Archbishop Andrei) tonsured her with
the name Irene. How great was her joy! She would speak of this often later in
life.
She arrived here
in the convent in 1962. She was one of the last nuns to come from Harbin. Let
us recall that this was in the years of the Cultural Revolution, years of
terrible persecution, which every Russian in China endured. She did not leave,
because she was caring for the elderly abbess, and would not evacuate from
China until she had fulfilled her obedience. Moreover, she was supposed to wind
up with her sisters at the Convent of our Lady of Vladimir in California. But
it seems that she was so weakened by the journey, or perhaps there was another
reason, that she was told to stay here. They feared that she would not survive
all the way to California. And the nuns here recalled – this may be hard to
imagine – that she arrived a tall, very tall, young woman. It is hard for us
now to see a tall, stately Cossack woman in the hunched eldress that we knew.
No one knows how much she weighed then, but she arrived at the convent’s
threshold a skeleton, skin pulled tight over her bones, her clothes hanging off
of her, as though on a hanger. The older nuns hustled and bustled to restore
her to health, feeding her ice cream. And they did not labor in vain: they
received first a wonderful sister, and later a mother for their entire
habitation.
Novo-Diveevo convent NY |
Here is one
curious instance relating to her arrival at the convent. She did not know how
monastery life worked here, and knew nothing of Fr. Adrian. "The first,
then second days passed, then a third, and suddenly the nuns approached me,
saying: What’s the matter with you, little dove, that you
won’t go up to Father? He’s getting annoyed. But I didn’t know who he
was, I didn’t know anything." How much humility and simplicity! Of course,
Fr. Adrian warmed up to her, and soon grew to love the future abbess, the
future Mother Irene. It is no coincidence that the future abbess bore the
obedience of serving on the kliros, among her other
obediences. That was a characteristic trait of hers, that she would fulfill
without complaint the most varied obediences; but her primary job was on kliros. How and where
did she learn to sing on kliros, how and where
did she acquaint herself with the order of church services? We only know that
she did this in the years she spent in Harbin, while living with the abbess,
for whom she was caring; while she was with her family, attending church; and,
principally, here in the convent, where her every day, as an assistant to the
future Archbishop Andrei, was filled with the countless panihidas that were
served here. According to some, on Sundays they would return from the cemetery
only at four o’clock in the afternoon, when Liturgy had finished at 11 that
morning. The whole day was full of labors of prayer. So she continued under Fr.
Alexander, and Fr. Alexander can testify that for more than ten years she bore
this obedience, until a new obedience was placed on her.
And throughout all
this, one of the most striking characteristics of the Mother Abbess – and we
already heard of her humility and obedience – was her vow of constancy, which every
monastic vows, and which she fulfilled in her life. Few know this, but in her
more than 50 years in the monastery, the Mother Abbess left its walls once in
her life. And even then it was not of her own accord. When the elder sisters,
participating in a charitable lottery, won a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they
forced their younger sister to travel. This was the only time in 50 years that
she left the convent grounds! Of course, this does not include the final years,
when she had to go the hospital, but again this took place only in obedience.
She did not want to leave the convent. But if those two magic words were spoken
– "Father said, so I must go," that was the end of it, with no
argument, no debate. What a stunning example of obedience.
Even her entire
life here, in the convent, the minutes and hours when she was free from any
monastic obedience were spent in her small, salvific triangle ‒ the church, her
cell, and the refectory. Even here no one saw her wandering about without
purpose. And of course the cell is a continuation of the church; the refectory
is a continuation of the church; it is ceaseless, unbroken prayer. This is why
I say that she could give us more than anyone who is wise with life experience:
she learned to pray in life, and prays for us now. Can we close this breach;
can we learn to pray as she prayed?
Now we have a good
chance to accomplish this for ourselves. Moreover, we now have a faithful
intercessor. She now stands before the throne of Him, to Whom she was betrothed
in life. Awaiting her now is a meeting with her Bridegroom, and there, with her
Bridegroom, she will continue to pray, and pray for all of us. And we here will
pray for her. Amen.
The burial of Mother Irene was
held in the monastic section of the Novo-Diveevo Cemetery. Memory eternal to Abbess Irene!
"Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org."
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