Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
Women of the Catacombs
Memoirs of the Underground Orthodox Church in Stalin's Russia
Wallace L. Daniel (Edited and translated by), Roy R. Robson (Foreword by), Archpriest Aleksandr Men (Preface by), Wallace L. Daniel (Introduction by)
9781501753657
Hardback, published 15 March 2021
252 pages, 13 b&w halftones - 13 Halftones, black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.907 kg
[W]hy Christianity survived persecution in the Soviet Union, is to a great extent explained by the lives and religious faith of those presented to us in Women of the Catacombs with expert commentary and explanations in an introduction and footnotes by the editor, Dr Wallace Daniel, who also published a biography of Fr Aleksandr in 2016. Reading these textsdoes highlight the distinctiveness of Elena and Vera's perspectives as believers, providing a rare insight into an alternative culture. Thanks to the contribution of Wallace Daniel and his collaborators, the perspectives of these two remarkable women can enrich our understanding of everyday life under extraordinary circumstances.
The memoirs presented in Women of the Catacombs offer a rare close-up account of the underground Orthodox community and its priests during some of the most difficult years in Russian history. The catacomb church in the Soviet Union came into existence in the 1920s and played a significant part in Russian national life for nearly fifty years. Adherents to the Orthodox faith often referred to the catacomb church as the "light shining in the dark." Women of the Catacombs provides a first-hand portrait of lived religion in its social, familial, and cultural setting during this tragic period. Until now, scholars have had only brief, scattered fragments of information about Russia's illegal church organization that claimed to protect the purity of the Orthodox tradition. Vera Iakovlevna Vasilevskaia and Elena Semenovna Men, who joined the church as young women, offer evidence on how Russian Orthodoxy remained a viable, alternative presence in Soviet society, when all political, educational, and cultural institutions attempted to indoctrinate Soviet citizens with an atheistic perspective. Wallace L. Daniel's translation not only sheds light on Russia's religious and political history, but also shows how two educated women maintained their personal integrity in times when prevailing political and social headwinds moved in an opposite direction.
1. I: Fr. Serafim by Vera Iakovlevna Vasilevskaia
Ante Lucem
One Must Take up the Cross
White Chrysanthemums
The Grace of the Holy Spirit
Holding on to Christ's Garments
Go to Sarov
In Ravaged Sarov
It Will Be More Difficult
The War
The Last Days and the End
2. II: Fr. Pyotr Shipkov by Vera Iakovlevna Vasilevskaia
In Zagorsk during the War
On the End of the War. The Rebirth of the Church
Fr. Pyotr in Exile (Letters)
Return from Exile
Illness and the Final Days in the Life of Fr. Pyotr
From the Letters of V. Ia. Vasilevskaia to N. V. Trapani
3. III: My Journey by Elena Semenovna Men