Saints Mary and Martha, Orthodox Monastery, Wagener, SC

OK, we know we are a month late in sending out our newsletter. As usual, the Nativity Fast culminated in the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Twelve Days of Christmas were followed by Theophany, in which we celebrate the Baptism of Christ and the manifestation of the Trinity – The Son is baptized, the Father speaks, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. No sooner do we finish Theophany than we find ourselves in the pre-Lenten season and struggle to schedule our home for a House Blessing before Lent begins and host a Young Adult Retreat and many guests – more about this later. Lent and Pascha (Easter) were really early this year, so like many of you, there was no time to “catch our breath”, between Nativity, Theophany, and Pascha and three burials. Candle orders are at an all-time high. Thanks be to God. Since our Pilgrimage is the second Saturday after Pascha, we squeezed the preparations needed for Pilgrimage between Bright Week services, making candles, and handling the day-to-day needs of our monastery. After Pilgrimage, we collapsed. Now it is May, and the planning for Youth Retreats begins in earnest. Are you tired yet?

We know that there are too few workers in God’s vineyard, and that, when we truly dedicate our lives to Christ and honestly mean “Thy will be done”, life is never the same afterwards, but always interesting.

As most Southern gardeners know, there is always plenty to do in the garden no matter what month it is. With the help of many friends of the monastery, we have been able to keep the vegetable and perennial gardens and orchard in fairly good condition. The late freezes in April damaged many of the plants. Since God gave most of these plants the ability to overcome the damage caused by such freezes, we could only wait and watch. By the end of May or first of June, we will be pruning back the dead that this late freeze caused.

On January 13th, the owner of Woodlanders in Aiken, South Carolina, gave a lecture on the Winter Garden. There are so many ways to create color and interest in a Southern winter garden -- now for the time to be able to put that knowledge to use.

The local chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority, an International Honorary Organization for Women Educators, visited us on January 16th as part of their monthly meeting. Mother Helena gave a candle making demonstration and provided them with a short history of our monastery.

Mother Thecla & Mother Helena with some of the members of
Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority

Friday evening, January 20th, found us hosting our second Young Adult Retreat. Two of last years attendees brought others with them. One brought her roommate and another friend. The second brought three others, two of whom learned of our retreat through the local Orthodox Student Fellowship (OSF). Fr. John Parker led this retreat of eight young adults, two OCA Orthodox, one Antiochian Orthodox, two Coptic Orthodox, one Catechumen, and two Protestants. All of these young people are dedicated Christians with many talents. The three pictures below are the gift of a talented young photographer. One brought her troubadour harp which Fr. John is playing. (He is also studying classical guitar.) Another noticed that we have an abundance of long needle pine leaves and attempted weaving with them – not as easy as it looks. Since Fr. John had to return to his parish to serve Sunday Liturgy, we took the group to Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in West Columbia for Liturgy and then to breakfast at the Other Pancake House in Lexington, South Carolina. Time was too short and the company too good to see this year’s retreat come to an end. We pray that each of them will find God’s will for their life and look forward to hearing from them in years to come.

Pictures taken by
Theodore Alexander

At least once per quarter we schedule a Sunday to attend Liturgy at a more distant parish. We visited St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church (OCA) in Atlanta, Georgia, the last Sunday in January. Cynthia and Olga Chernecky graciously hosted us Saturday night. We drove to Atlanta on Saturday and returned to our monastery on Sunday. Valerie Hook took care of the monastery and its “critters”. We were able to visit some with Fr. Peter and Mother Terry Smith, her mother and their daughter and her children. Again, we were amazed at the number of people who attend this church whom we have come to know over the years and had the opportunity to catch up on some of their news.

Earlier we mentioned having had three burials since the beginning of January. Avtandil Visili Tetradze, the father of Tamara Tetradze Combahee, was buried here January 10th. Raphaela Diaz, the mother of Marta Rios wife of Fr. Ernesto Rios, was buried here on March 27th. Robert Peter Robichau, the father of Fr. Dn. Peter Robichau, was buried here April 12th. The longer we live and observe, the more we know that God is in all places at all times working with all people.

Donna Davenport and Debbie and Paul Stankus drove from Augusta on the first Saturday of February and helped us clean up part of our garden and reinforce the upper loft of the Red Shed. They had fun posing in monastery T-shirts (which are a gift from a friend) with signs saying, “Will work for food.”

We have been greatly blessed to have Hieromonk (a monk who is a priest) Joshua Anna serve Liturgy here on various occasions. His serving Liturgy for us on the one Saturday a year the Orthodox Church sets aside to commemorate all departed monastics (February 17th this year) gave us the opportunity to pray for the monks and nuns who have gone before us and to remember their deeds and sacrifices in following Christ’s call to the monastic life.

This Liturgy followed by Forgiveness Sunday marked a great beginning to our Lenten journey. After years of working on organizing the many services of Lent, and, now with greater peace being bestowed upon this monastery, our first week of Lent was one of spiritual immersion. We were also blessed to have a potential seeker spend two months with us which started on the first Monday of Lent. This proved to be a blessing to all three of us as well as many of our visitors.

Steve and Nancy Hall paid us a short visit from St. Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Church in Waldorf, Maryland. We are always grateful to see them and learn about the progress that is being made at their parish. They and their fellow parishioners have been most helpful to our monastery, especially in the pear wine department. Steve took this picture of Mother Helena making candles.

The First or Second Saturday Liturgies continue to be served here, thanks to Fr. Thomas Moore. We never know who will come, but are always grateful and blessed by those who take part of their Saturday to attend Liturgy.

Every other Sunday usually finds us attending Liturgy at Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in West Columbia or Holy Resurrection Orthodox Mission in Aiken. Even though Holy Apostles Church felt the loss of their Aiken brothers and sisters with the formation of a new mission with Fr. Andrew Diehl as their shepherd, both parish and mission are growing as God wills.

Early March brought three and one-half inches of rain, which in turn showed us that our roof was leaking. God is so very good. Within a week, a friend recommended a reputable roofer who came out with two other men and repaired and re-roofed our monastery.

Rev. Jim Bennett, a Methodist minister who is one of the big names in gardening in these parts, lectured on gardening in general on the evenings of March 5th and 6th at the Charles Wesley United Methodist Church in Aiken. It was a blessing to start a garden class with prayer. He provided a room full of gardeners with many useful tips and a special session on growing tomatoes. He sincerely hoped that some of those in attendance would be drawn to Christ through having these classes there and enjoying the hospitality that his parishioners provided. This along with words from other Christian ministers reminded us that it takes a great deal of shoe leather to spread the Gospel. Often we pray that people would be more interested in Christ and His Gospel.

Being a Master Gardener, Mother Thecla is required to have twenty-five hours of volunteer time per year to keep her certification. Answering many of your garden questions counts towards these hours. Attending gardening classes like the one above or like the Garden Symposium that is offered once a year in Columbia, South Carolina, also count as volunteer time. A little knowledge and knowing what questions to ask save us time and money.

This year, the middle week of Lent, the Week of the Cross, proved to be one in which God brought one project almost to fruition and two projects to completion – talk about a really great week.

About six years ago, we purchased a chalice with memorial donations, but did not realize that this chalice did not have a matching paten and star and that the monastery that made it did not and would not make one. We looked everywhere and asked jewelers and many others if they knew a silversmith who could accomplish this task. Every time we thought we had a silversmith, something happened. On the afternoon of the Sunday of the Cross, a friend brought a man to us who is a true silversmith, a craftsman from the old country. We pray that in a few months, this monastery will be graced with a matching paten and star for our existing chalice.

On Tuesday of the Week of the Cross, Mother Thecla visited Dusan, the wood worker who had made the fans and processional cross as well as the tabernacle for our monastery. He had graciously accepted the task of making a floor-standing, seven-branch candle stand. He could draw this candle stand to scale to fit between the tabernacle and the fans and cross, but for two years, the Spirit did not move him to work on this project. Just as we had given up on this project, a Russian man named Sergei was looking for work as a caver until he returned to Moscow. Well, he took the job and carved the seven branches of the candle stand, much of it free hand. With this part completed, Dusan was able to finish the project. The design is based on a description in Exodus of the seven-branch candle stand in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. This picture in no way does justice to the craftsmanship or the cocobolo wood that was used to make it.

When we returned home from Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday night of the same week, FedEx had left a large wooden box which contained the Plashchanitza (winding sheet) that we had commissioned Galina Tregubov to make over two years earlier. Neither pictures nor words describe the beauty of her handywork that God blesses. We used it for the first time at the burial service on Great and Holy Friday afternoon.

Lent continued at an arduous pace ending in its usual manner on the Friday before Lazarus Saturday, one of the monastery’s three feastdays. Once again we were blessed to have Hieromonk Joshua Anna serve Presanctified Liturgy on Friday evening and Liturgy on the morning of Lazarus Saturday. With Matins being prayed before Liturgy, this year’s Lazarus Saturday had greater spiritual impact than in previous years. Palm Sunday found us worshipping at Holy Resurrection Mission in Aiken.

For the first time since we came here eleven years ago, we were able to attend Presanctified Liturgy on Great and Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – what a blessing. Hieromonk Joshua Anna graciously served Presanctified Liturgy here on Monday and Tuesday. Fr. Andrew Diehl at the mission in Aiken had asked Mother Thecla to direct the choir on Wednesday Presanctified Liturgy and then again at Liturgy on Holy Thursday. Except for these two Liturgies and the Liturgy of Holy Saturday at Holy Apostles in West Columbia and Pascha at Holy Resurrection in Aiken, we were able to have all of the services of Holy Week in our own chapel. (In a monastery without a priest, it is customary that all non-sacramental services can be done by the monastics.)

God willing, someday we will be able to celebrate all the Liturgies of Bright Week. It seems that we spend so much energy on Lent and Holy Week that by the time we finish Pascha, there is little energy left to greatly rejoice over Christ’s Resurrection. This rejoicing begins at Pascha, is repeated throughout Bright Week, and continues to the day before Ascension -- forty days total.

In preparing for our annual Pilgrimage which occurs each year on the second Saturday after Pascha, which is the day before Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday, also one of three feastdays for Saints Mary and Martha, Bret Barnard, Ethan Sturges, and Phyllis Boyd helped us with the numerous preparations that needed to be done to ready our monastery to receive the many guests that were expected.

It was truly heartwarming to see so many people walking up the driveway to stand under the tents that were set up for Liturgy and the other services of the day. All in all, 94 people attended – our biggest crowd ever. It was a joyous day for us.

Visitors being shown the Hermitage
as part of Mother Helena’s tour of the Monastery

Mother Anna (center) who is from the Women’s Monastery at
Optima in Russia and who is visiting her daughter and her
family, graciously posed with us for this photo.

Father Thomas Moore blessing the graves

By God’s grace and strength, we have received numerous visitors over the last three plus months – those seeking a monastic life, family members, and friends both old and new. All our days are full and overflowing. Please continue to pray for God to lead women to the monastic life at Saints Mary and Martha Monastery here in Wagener, South Carolina and to all monasteries. The world is in great need of prayer.