Mother Maria - a Righteous among the Nations
On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, Tatiana from the Haifa community sends us an article about Mother Maria (Maria Elisaveta Scobtsova), one of the remarkable figures of the Russian Orthodox Church who was canonized by the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2004, together with her son Yiuri and a priest, Father Dimitri Klepinin and Ylia Fondaminski, all heroes of the resistance to the Nazi occupation in France.
A refugee from Russia after the revolution, Maria Elisaveta consecrated her life to helping the poorest of the Russian refugees in France. She entered religious life in 1932, taking the name Mother Maria. When the persecution of the Jews began under the Nazi occupation, she reacted to the order directed at the Jews to wear the yellow star, saying: “There is not only a Jewish question but a Christian question. If we were true Christians, we would all wear the yellow star”. When the Jews of Paris were rounded up, she went among them trying to comfort them. She smuggled babies out of the clutches of the Nazis, aided by Father Dimitri Klepinin and together they prepared false baptism certificates. Finally, she was arrested together with her close collaborators and she perished in the camps.
Cardinal Lustiger of Paris participated in the canonization ceremony of this remarkable woman. The State of Israel has recognized her as one of the Righteous among the Nations. May her memory be blessed.
See the full article in Russian.
See Yad VaShem document on Mother Maria in Hebrew: Read
Memorial to the Jesuit Righteous Among the Nations