St. Xenia Sisterhood
HOLY SAINT BLESSED MOTHER XENIA,
PRAY TO GOD FOR US!
Troparion to St. Xenia, in the Fourth Tone
Having renounced the vanity of the earthly world,/
Thou didst take up the cross of a homeless life of wandering;/
Thou didst not fear grief, privation, nor the mockery of men,/
And didst know the love of Christ./
Now taking sweet delight of this love in heaven,/
O Xenia, the blessed and divinely wise,/
Pray for the salvation of our souls.
“St. Xenia” Sisterhood Meeting Announcement!
Attention: Dear sisters, parishioners of the St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church!
The Regular Sisterhood Meeting will be held at the Parish house next to the Church, at Sunday, May 30th, 2010 after the Divine Liturgy.
All sisters are encouraged to attend this meeting. Please, join us for tea or coffee before that too.
“St. Xenia” Sisterhood meeting – Agenda:
1. Quarterly updates Report of the Sisterhood activity – March / May 2010
2. Plan for the next 3 months.
3. Proposals and discussions.
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Important Announcement about ongoing sisterhood activities and fundraising projects
With the blessing of our Fr. Lubomir and with the help of many volunteers we have recently started new craft projects in “St. Xenia” Sisterhood of St. Vladimir Church for fundraising purposes. We already have our first production ready for you to buy. The 4th Sunday of the Great Lent started Pasha Sale of hand-made craft items in the Church kiosk.
A large basket with all type of the items we make in the Sisterhood is placed in the kiosk for your convenience to explore.
For more information about the ready production please, visit Kiosk webpage here.
How do we make candles?
Candle creation activity: the idea has started before the Feast of “Nativity of Our Lord and Savior” as to make candles using the wax from leftovers candles in the Church.
For this reason the room next to the kitchen was cleaned up and assigned for this activity. We bought a candle making machine, different dyes and aroma and also different items for decoration the candles.
Candles in the shape of eggs for Pasha are one priority now.
In the room where we make candles.
Candles in a shape of Paschal eggs and crosses, as well as in large and small cylinder and square shapes are available now in the Church Kiosk. We make them from the bits and pieces of the Church candles lit up in Church at the time of service. In addition we add different colors and fragrance to the melted wax and then decorate the ready candles with real pressed flowers, non-natural stones and flowers, and ribbons. For Paschal eggs “X B” (the Cyrillic initials of “Christ is Risen”) is written additionally with golden and silver pens. We also make small red candles for private and Church prayers.
Ira is very creative when decorating candles. Masha is pouring the wax into molds.
Hand painted Paschal Eggs and other items
The second big project is still ongoing and is related to the upcoming feast of Paskha. In order for these activities to be successful we now gather together to work on these projects every Saturday in the Parish house approximately at noon or even earlier.
Numerous types of wooden, foam and real egg shells are beautifully painted and decorated by our sisters.
Many sisters are involved in decoration of wooden Paschal eggs and other items under the guidance of our talented sisters and painters – Olga LaMont, Elena Texas and Tatiana Sheiko.
Olya, Tanya and Lena working. Our artist Olya LaMont.
Olya showing Sonya and Vasya the technique of painting with acrylics on wood. Olya and Tanya discussing something and Katya using a computer to design patterns.
Many sisters and their children enjoy preparing and decorating items which look very professional.
Tanya is showing one of her painted eggs. Katya is so concentrated…
Alla is very talented. We all love her work. Working atmosphere in the parish house
Brothers also are interested to come and help with these projects.
Juan is helping with smoothing the surface of the wooden eggs with sand paper before painting. Gennadiy works on the important last step of polishing twice the painted eggs for better look.
Dean also likes to join us when is not busy at Saturdays and works very hard.
Batushka Lubomir giving some suggestions. Lena just finished painting.
The hand-painted Paschal Eggs are exclusive sisters’ work. Nice egg is good for decoration and possesses the characteristic Russian style and spirit. In the Ancient Russia these eggs were the most popular present for Pasha.
We were also inspired by Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian patterns of the Paschal art to make ”Pysanky” – traditional Paschal eggs – painted on real egg shells.
There are small number of “Faberge” style Paschal eggs, beautifully decorated with stones, beads and other items by our sisters.
To paint the eggs our sisters make use of acrylic dyes, golden and silver pens and permanent markers for decorations as well as non-natural and natural stones. All wooden eggs were additionally polished twice for better look.
There are also some plates painted by children and moms from our Church!
Olya LaMont has painted one very original and beautiful wooden egg with the icon of Mother of God. Gorgeous!!!
Sonya – just finishing her first “ruchnik”
Do you recognize it? This is our Church, painted by Tanya. And a part of our work, ready for the Kiosk!
We have also started new project – we are going to make “pelmeny” in the kitchen. Tatiana has shown to us how to make them. Our first are already in the freezer.
Thank you for visiting the Sisterhood page! Please, keep doing it frequently to be informed for our activities.
OUR RIGHTEOUS MOTHER XENIA OF SAINT PETERSBURG,
THE FOOL FOR CHRIST’S SAKE
“IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT. HERE RESTS THE BODY OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, XENIA GRIGORIEVNA, WIFE OF THE IMPERIAL CHORISTER, COLONEL ANDREI THEODOROVICH PETROV. WIDOWED AT THE AGE OF 26, A PILGRIM FOR 45 YEARS, SHE LIVED A TOTAL OF 71 YEARS. SHE WAS KNOWN BY THE NAME ANDREI THEODOROVICH. MAY WHOEVER KNEW ME PRAY FOR MY SOUL THAT HIS OWN MAY BE SAVED. AMEN.”
Epitaph on St. Xenia’s gravestone
The Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg was born about the year 1730. She was married to a Colonel named Andrew; a court chanter. Her husband died suddenly, when she was twenty six years old. Left a widow without children, Xenia gave away everything that she had and vanished from St. Petersburg for eight years; it is believed that she spent this time in a hermitage, possibly learning the spiritual life. When she returned to Saint Petersburg, she wore her husband’s military clothing, and would answer only to the name of her husband. Mother Xenia took up the life of a homeless wanderer, and was abused by many as insane; she bore this with great patience, and praying for her husband’s soul. She was given great gifts of prayer and prophecy, and often foretold things to come; in 1796 she foretold the death of Empress Catherine II. Mother Xenia reposed in peace at the age of seventy one, about the year 1800. Her grave became such a source of miracles, and so many came to take soil from it as a blessing, that it was often necessary to replace the soil; when a stone slab was placed over her grave, this too disappeared over time, piece by piece.
Saint Xenia is especially called upon for help in finding employment, lodging, or a spouse.
ST. XENIA SISTERHOOD
OF ST. VLADIMIR RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The St. Vladimir Church’s Sisterhood is a Parish organization whose Heavenly patron is Saint Blessed Xenia of Saint Petersburg, the Holy Fool for Christ’s Sake. The Sisterhood feast day is celebrated on February 6. Each year a Molieben with Akathist for St. Xenia is served on that day in the St. Vladimir Church.
As a sisterhood we make every effort to support the church and parish life. Our main goals are to clean and beautify the Parish Church, Parish House and surrounding areas, to host receptions for special church events, and to organize various special parish projects – Sunday school, Orthodox Icon Exhibitions, “Yolka”, “Maslenitsa”, “Blini”, Orthodox movie presentations, also talks and discussions at the time of regular Sunday’s tea hour. The Sisterhood is also involved in a broad range of projects to serve the parish including kiosk item sales and most recently, “honey” sales which have enabled the Sisterhood to make substantial contributions to the parish. The Sisterhood takes part in several charitable activities throughout the year.
(See Church Calendar for schedule of Sisterhood meetings and events).
All women of the parish are considered members of St. Xenia Sisterhood.
For more information and to learn about the Sisterhood’s activities, or to make a contribution to our Sisterhood Fund, please contact:
Senior Sister, Ekaterina Marinova at marinova@bcm.tmc.edu
Treasurer, Lydia Krawtzova at lkrawtzowa@comcast.net