On Saturday, February 12, 2022, the Feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs, His Grace Bishop Maxim tonsured Monk Theophil (Dove) at the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California. Fr. Theophil has labored in service to our Lord Jesus for nearly half a century, including over thirty years in the monastic life. The Great Schema, granted him in old age, marks a new chapter in his life, in which he is called to greater solitude and prayer in preparation for the other world.

Bishop Maxim arrived at the monastery in the morning, together with the nuns of St. Xenia Skete. The tonsure service was held during the Divine Liturgy, before the Epistle and Gospel readings. Friends from nearby parishes were in attendance, including Fr. Theophil’s godson Reader Basil Ellis from St. Andrew’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Anderson. His Grace prayed the moving and soul-profiting words of the service, and Abbot Damascene read the catechesis for those receiving the Great Schema.

After the service and meal in the trapeza, Abbot Damascene thanked the monastery’s father bishop for the blessing of the tonsure: the first great schema granted to a brother in the fifty-two years of the monastery’s existence. Bishop Maxim then answered questions on spiritual topics from the monastics and pilgrims. He spoke with love of his spiritual father, His Grace Bishop Atanasije (Jevtic), whose one-year memorial he was soon to attend in Hercegovina.

The day was filled with a quiet joy from the services and talk, as well as happiness for our brother, Schemamonk Theophil, who has been given new grace to fight the good fight on the way to our heavenly homeland.

— Abbot Damascene