Monastic Tonsures at St. Xenia Skete and St. Herman Monastery
With the blessing of God and the loving embrace of the Most Holy Theotokos, His Grace Bishop Maxim tonsured Abbess Dorothea of St. Xenia Skete (Wildwood, California) into the Great Schema and three novices of St. Herman Monastery (Platina, California) as ryassaphore monks.
Abbess Dorothea was tonsured during the Vesperal Service for Great-Martyr Marina on July 16/29, 2024. She received again at the tonsure her baptismal name Joanna, for her first patron, holy Apostle John the Evangelist. Abbess Joanna came to the Monastery of St. Xenia in 1988 and was tonsured into the Small Schema in 1992 with the name of Dorothea, for St. Dorothea of Kashin. On October 9/22, 2013, Mother Dorothea was elevated to the rank of Abbess by His Grace Bishop Maxim on the feast day of holy Apostle James and St. Stephen the Blind, King of Serbia.
Her tonsure into the Great Schema took place in the newly constructed Chapel dedicated to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God at St. Xenia Skete. It was a quiet, mystical service, filled with the
grace of repentance. Gerontissa Markella of the Life-Giving Spring Monastery, Dunlap, accompanied the Abbess to give her vows to God before Bishop Maxim, who gave the newly tonsured Schema-Abbess Joanna sober and soul-profiting words on the grace and great responsibilities of this further step upon the monastic path to Christ.
The joy following the service encompassed the evening and the sisters’ festal meal with Bishop Maxim and guests.
The following morning, His Grace arrived at the St. Hermaof Alaska Monastery along with Schema-abbess Joanna, her sisters, and friends of the monastery. He celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, with Abbot Damascene, Hieromonk Paisius, and Priest Nectarios Rozadilla concelebrating. At the Small Entrance, he tonsured Novices Michael, Pavel, and Alexey with the names Matthew, Patrick, and Ambrose, respectively.
When the Liturgy concluded, he addressed the new ryassaphore monks by saying, “Welcome to the angelic life! We monks are called to be like angels.” He said that the new monks had made a great decision and were at a great moment in their lives. At the same time, he warned them that the monastic life is not without its risks, and so they must tread carefully the path of spiritual struggle toward Christ, bearing their crosses. We testify to this when new monastics are tonsured and are given new names. As they greet the monastics after the service, he said, all those in attendance are to ask them, “What is your name?” When the monastic replies, the congregants are to reply, “Rejoice in your cross.”
At the meal in the monastery trapeza, His Grace had further edifying words for the newly tonsured monastics: “The first man Adam took the whole universe and directed it toward himself. The monk takes the whole universe and directs it toward God.… You must cultivate brotherly love. We are warriors against the demons and passions, not against each other. And remember, you must be examples to those who come here.”
Abbot Damascene shared some words about the new names chosen for the three monks. R-monk Mathew was so named because the Holy Evangelist Matthew was the first missionary to Ethiopia, and R-monk Matthew was the among the first Orthodox Christians to research accounts, housed at the Library of Congress, of former African American slaves. There he found the names and stories of slaves who suffered martyric deaths because they refused to stop praying and showing other signs of their Christian Faith. This material was published in the book An Unbroken Circle (Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black, 1989; new edition, The Unbroken Circle Series, vol. 1: Foundations).
R-monk Patrick was so named because St. Patrick was the great Enlightener of Ireland, and R-monk Patrick has an avidity for sharing the Orthodox Faith with others, whether at the monastery or while doing obediences in town. Prior to his tonsure, he researched St. Patrick’s life and writings, and was especially moved by the Saint’s Breastplate (prayer of protection), which includes the famous words: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left.”
R-monk Ambrose was named after St. Ambrose of Optina because St. Ambrose was a spiritual forebear of the St. Herman Monastery, through St. Nekary of Optina and the monastery’s first spiritual father, Bishop Nektary of Seattle. Furthermore, while R-monk Ambrose was given St. Ambrose as his new heavenly patron, he was also so named in honor of Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (formerly Fr. Alexey Young), a spiritual son and primary intellectual heir of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of blessed memory, the monastery’s co-founder. In December of the previous year, R-monk Ambrose and Abbot Damascene were able to visit HIeroschemamonk Ambrose in Colorado Springs, where they were enriched by his memories of the monastery’s early years and of Fr. Seraphim.
As always, the visit of Bishop Maxim to our monastic communities in northern California brought with it an outpouring of the grace of God. We are grateful for his loving care for us, which reflects as in a mirror the mercy and benevolence of God.
