Mother Dorofea (Mirochnitchenko)

Mother Dorofea (Mirochnitchenko) (1935-2004)

Dorofea may be spelt Dorothea, Dorothée, Dorothy.

— Edited and expandedfrom an article in the Autumn, 2004, issue of "The Canadian Orthodox Messenger" by the Nun Sophia (Zion)

Early life of Dia Borisovna Lazis, background information

Introduction

Mother Dorofea (civil name Dia Borisovna Mirochnitchenko) fell asleep in the Lord on 23 June 2004, in Ottawa. This was following many weeks of palliative care in the home of her daughter Helen and son-in-law Jeremy Scratch. Hers is a life-story of hardship and suffering — as an orphan, as a displaced person during and after World War II, and as a struggling immigrant to Canada. However, it is also a story of dedication to God and of immense love — for her family, for Christ and His Church, and for scores of suffering, needy people she met and served throughout her life.

Before writing specifically about Mother Dorofea’s life (and while remembering that every life is lived in a particular historical context), it is useful to recall a few details about the history of Latvia, and the history of Riga. Without this, we cannot begin to comprehend the turmoil and pain of Mother Dorofea’s life. Some helpful information is provided to us by the following link, "Latvia: From Soviet Union to European Union", published on 1 December 2013 by Jon Danzig. The experiences of this writer can help others to understand some events in the lives of their friends and relatives who came from Latvia, and particularly those who were alive in the years following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917-1918 through World War II and its aftermath. The information also can help us understand something about the difficult historical and political background of Mother Dorofea’s childhood in Riga. Some of this is presented in a somewhat different manner in the following section.

Background information about Latvia

From great antiquity, Riga has been an important and sheltered port-city on the Daugava River (called in Russian the West Dvina), just before it empties into the Gulf of Riga. At the present time, the city is on both the north and south banks of this river. In the earliest times, Latvia was inhabited by a Finnish tribe, the Lins. Later, it became a stop on one of the Viking trading routes. Then, in the 13th century, when Latvia was part of a territory governed by Germany and called Livonia, Riga was founded as the capital city, in 1201. It soon became a Hanseatic League trading city. Riga’s trading and business characteristic has remained central to the city’s life ever since then, even though there has been frequent disruption because of invasions. In the 16th century, the land fell under Polish and Lithuanian domination. In the 17th century, Sweden conquered the territory. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia became the next governor after the Great Northern War (1700-1721). During the early years of this time, there was huge devastation, because of the “scorched earth policy” of the Emperor Peter I of Russia, and because of the plague. This “scorched earth” policy was employed by Peter I during the 1707-1709 invasion of Russia by King Charles XII of Sweden, beginning at Riga. In his retreating, Peter I saw to the burning of everything that might be of use to the invaders. It was for him ultimately a successful tactic, but it was very costly to the local people. The effects of this policy (together with the plague) killed over half the population of Latvia. Nevertheless, in the 19th century, as a result of being part of the Russian Empire, there was an economic and construction boom. Railways, factories, schools, parks, boulevards and beautiful houses were built during this time. Riga, the capital of Latvia, came to have the largest port in the Russian Empire. Because of this history, Riga became a very diverse, multicultural society. Russian, German and Jewish people constituted large minorities. Each had its own schools and other services, and the peoples largely lived in peace and co-operation. Tensions were minimal. Latvian was the main language (as it is nowadays), and other languages were freely spoken. Life in this city was good, pleasant and enriching, which is why there are so many people who feel an attachment to it to this day.

World War I (1914 to 1918) desolated Latvia, because it became a battlefield between Germany and Russia. At first, Germany took complete control, but then lost it after losing the war. The revolutions of 1917-1918 in Russia replaced the Romanov dynasty with the Soviet Socialist Republic. However, Latvia began a war of independence. On 18 November 1918, the Independent Republic of Latvia was declared, although the fighting continued until 1920. During the years leading up to World War II, independent Latvia experienced a dramatic economic growth, and achieved a high living-standard. Nevertheless, its years of independence were brief.

In the early spring of 1939 (just before the beginning of World War II), it became evident from an increased military presence in Riga, that there was a real danger that Latvia could again become a battle-field. A secret Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939 brought a temporary respite from war for Latvia and its Baltic neighbours (Estonia and Lithuania). By an agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany, these countries became part of “the Soviet sphere of influence”. By 1940, however, these Baltic states were threatened with a mass invasion by the Red Army. The Baltic governments were replaced, and the republics were annexed by the Soviet Union.

In July, 1941, Germany invaded. All the Baltic States then came under Nazi rule in a region known as "Reichskommissariat Ostland". As before, many people were imprisoned, and many died. There were unsuccessful attempts to resist the invasion. Nevertheless, Latvia became once again a theatre of war between the armies of Russia and Germany. By 1944, Germany was once again defeated ; and once again, Latvia became one of the Soviet Socialist Republics of the Union. As in other places during those times, there were many exchanges of populations. These are the main points of the environment into which Dia was born.

In present-day Riga, there is a significant Russian-speaking minority, which is generally treated as second-class at best. There is no longer a broad mix of other minorities, such as existed before World War II.

Birth of Dia Borisovna Lazis in Riga, Lativa

Dia Borisovna Lazis was born 13 March 1935 in Riga, Latvia. Although Dia’s surname was most likely Latvian (it could be of Georgian or Greek origin ; if it were spelt Lazic, it could be Serbian). Dia was the only child of Boris Lazis and Galina Korti (perhaps spelt Corti). It is known by her friends that Dia’s father was a Protestant, like most Latvians, and that her mother was an Orthodox Christian, like most Russians. Of course, Dia was raised in the Orthodox Church. On her mother’s side, one of her grandfathers was Italian. An only child, Dia Lazis was orphaned as a very young child in Riga.

Riga is an old city, situated on the banks of the West Dvina River (this is the Russian name for the Daugava River, and a name used also in Viking sagas). In its recent history, it has been a multi-ethnic city with beautiful architecture. At the time when Dia was born, there were many political and other struggles occurring during the years between the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war^2 world warsç. During this period, sometimes persons (including some clergy), would disappear or die under unexplained circumstances. She could recall that at a time when there were very few automobiles, these machines could sometimes be heard moving about at night. This was when people would be taken away by one or another authority. Her mother, determined not to be separated from her daughter, made certain that they always had some necessary personal items ready, and that they were both dressed and awake during the night in case their turn ever came. This will have been about 1941, when the Soviets were exerting pressure, as were the Nazis of Germany. The Nazis arrived in 1941, and they immediately began changing the nature of Latvian society.

From the beginning, Dia was perceived to be a person of higher than average intelligence and perspicacity, and this was clearly the case throughout her life. She asked many questions, and she saw things more deeply and more broadly than most others usually do. Sometimes, even many years later, the questions she would ask could provoke a sharp, defensive retort or rebuke. Sometimes the questions would be regarded as insolence. Dia was too young to have known the Martyr-Archbishop John (Pommers) of Riga, who was assassinated the year before her birth. She nevertheless knew about him. She spoke about him, about the positive effects of his service, and about his leadership as the first Archbishop of Riga and Latvia.

Parents ; bereavement ; an orphan, 1941

Dia's father, Boris, was a soldier. He was killed in action when she was about five (in about 1940), when there were struggles against the Soviets. Her mother, an ethnic Russian, was a physician. She died quite suddenly from illness in 1943 or somewhat before that.

For about a year after this, Dia lived homeless on the streets. She was begging for food from strangers. Afterwards, she was received by the nuns of the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery in Riga.

Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Women's Monastery, Riga

This monastic community of women cared for many orphans. Amongst these were the Kaminski siblings, Alexander Alexandrovich Kaminski and his sister Tatiana Alexandrovna Kaminskaya, who would become to her effectively her brother and sister.

Alexander and Tatiana Kaminsky, 1941

In their company, then, she began her education and her Christian formation in this monastery. It was at this time that she also came under the protection and long-term care of Elena Adamovna Yushkevich, who was at that time principal of the Russian elementary school located at Riga’s Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery, the school in which Dia’s own mother had also been a teacher. She had taught there already for many years. Although she was not an orphan, Dia's life-long friend Irina Lebedeva (later married, later the Nun Nila) was also a student at the monastery school. Irina's family had fled to Riga from Saint Petersburg after the Russian Revolution.

The Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery School, Riga

It was Elena Adamovna who would become her surrogate mother, and the surrogate mother of other children as well, including the Kaminskys.

] Elena Adamova Yushkevich, with pupils in 1936

During her relatively brief time in the shelter of the monastery, young Dia was blessed to know many people who would make on her a deep impression of lives lived in faithfulness and in suffering, sacrificial love. It can be said that, because of her life-formation and the examples of those she knew and loved, there was no time in her life in which Dia was not rooted in the love of God and in the life of the Church.

By 1944, the Nazis were evicted by the Soviets ; and at that time, there occurred a great upheaval and displacement of peoples. All those who could escape did so, many of them taking only what was possible to carry by hand. One of the persons whom Dia had known well and loved at this time was the ruling hierarch of Riga, Metropolitan Sergiy (Voskresensky), who had lived at the monastery. He was murdered by the Soviets in 1944. He was later glorified as a martyr and saint.

Metropolitan Sergiy (Voskresensky)

There was also the Abbess Evgenia (Postovsky) who had managed to save the monastery from the Bolsheviks at the time of their first invasion of Latvia.

Matushka Evgenia (Postovsky), Abbess of the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery

Abbess Evgenia was also the maternal aunt of the orphans Alexander and Tatiana Kaminsky (later of Montréal and Ottawa, famed choir conductors in their parishes). Dia, along with Alexander and Tatiana (often called her half-brother and half-sister), under the protection of Elena Adamovna Yushkevich, fled from Riga to Freiburg, Germany, in 1944 when the Soviets moved back again into Latvia.

Dia, her half-siblings, and all the other orphans were in Riga at the same time as Bishop John (Garklavs), who had been ordained to the Holy Episcopate as Bishop of Riga in 1943.

Bishop John (Garklavs) of Riga

It was he who (with others) had rescued the Wonder-working Icon of the Mother of God of Tikhvin from destruction by the Soviets. He, as others, rescued orphans by adopting them. In 1944, when it became necessary to flee Riga, Bishop John departed for Czechoslovakia and Germany, as did some priests. Bishop John also carried with him the Wonder-working Icon of the Mother of God of Tikhvin as he later travelled from there to refuge in the USA. It was there that he became the Bishop of Chicago, Illinois, and it was in this capacity that he was able to protect this holy icon for the remainder of his life.

Fleeing from invasion : exile, 1944

During this same period of desperate evacuation, Elena Adamovna Yushkevich gathered together many orphans of the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Monastery. By rail and other means, she took them overland through Poland to Germany. There were many wonderful events of unexpected survival during this arduous journey. This feat can be considered similar to a great feat undertaken a few years earlier in China, when Gladys Aylward (a Protestant missionary in Yangchen), had taken 100 children by foot over treacherous mountains and through many dangers to safety during over a week of walking. Another similar heroic flight of much greater proportions took place about 10 years after the flight from Riga when Saint John of Shanghai left China for the Philippines with his several thousands of orphans and others.

Eventually, Elena Adamovna and the children settled in a camp in the Black Forest region of Germany. Dia had many profound and poetic reflections about her experience there, and she particularly appreciated the nature of the winter snow in that region.

The years in Germany were ones of great suffering, physical hardship and near-starvation. By 1946-47, all 4 of them — Elena Adamovna, Dia, Tatiana and Alexander — were finally able to make their way to Paris, France, where the Kaminski children and Elena Adamovna had relatives. In Paris also, the Russian-speaking community experienced great poverty, but Dia was given a scholarship to a Roman Catholic convent-school where she excelled academically. In Paris, she had experience of both Archimandrite (later Archbishop) Sylvester (Haruns), and Father Alexander Schmemann. She would recall her deep interest in Father Alexander’s way of teaching children and young people, and of course the substance of it as well. Indeed, when he was teaching, she said, the room was so full that she often found herself outside the room, and listening through an open window.

Arrival in Canada, 1951

Elena Adamovna personally organised the emigration of her children to Canada, and the care of them upon arrival. In 1951, Dia and Tatiana followed Elena Adamovna Yushkevich and Alexander to Canada, where they settled in Montréal, Québec. There were very many complications associated with this departure. Dia was to leave on the very last ship leaving Brussels that would carry UN-recognised refugees, and at the last moment there was a document problem which was only miraculously resolved. Because of Dia’s outstanding academic performance in Paris, her teachers there arranged with the Archbishop of Montréal (at that time this was effectively Metropolitan Leonty) to have her placed in a fine school which followed the Parisian programme, and where she could successfully complete her secondary education. This was, as always, pursued under the watchful eye and firm direction of the intrepid Elena Adamovna. In Montréal, she found herself amongst many other refugees and others from Latvia, one of them later being Archbishop Sylvester. Here, she also met the very pastoral Priest Oleg Boldireff. This intelligent, industrious pastor spent many years of hard work in helping people with their immigration and settlement difficulties.

Marriage, 1957

In 1957, Dia was married to Konstantin Alexandrovich Mirochnitchenko at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Montréal.

Konstantin Alexandrovich was born on 21 December, 1913, in Ukraine. His father was at that time the rector of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Montréal, and he had previously served in many other capacities in the mission communities in Québec. Konstantin was a well-educated and intelligent person, and a competent scientist, but who took a different path from that of his parents.

Dia soon became the busy mother of three : Constantine, Helen, and Svetlana (Claire). Following the birth of their third child in 1960, the family moved to Ottawa, Ontario. There, Dia’s husband, Konstantin, worked as a scientific researcher for the government. There also, Dia was soon able to begin her studies again, despite the family’s struggling circumstances and limited means.

Higher education

While her children were still relatively young, Dia earned first a B.A., and then an M.A. in Slavic languages and literature, both from the University of Ottawa. She specialised in philology. Later, she was able to continue her studies.

Dia then taught Russian for many years, first in the public school system, and then for an agency of the Department of National Defence. From the beginning of her time in Ottawa, Dia was an active parishioner in the Russian-speaking Church of Saint Nicholas. Here, she again encountered the Archpriest Oleg Boldireff, who served that parish for many years.

During this time, however, her husband fell into a dark period during which he became an alcoholic. Because of this, he also came to be “beside himself” (as people used to say) in his relationships within his family. The domestic situation became so complicated, contradictory and intolerable that it became impossible for Dia to continue to live with him. It was also a situation in which every choice did not seem good. However, for the sake of the welfare of all concerned, it was she who had to leave the home, leaving behind her three teen-age children.

It is important to note at this time that before this collapse of her marriage, Dia’s lively intelligence had led her to begin the work towards a Ph.D. with the Sorbonne University in Paris (by distance study). As a part of this, she wished to study the literature of the Russians in emigration after the Bolshevik Revolution, and particularly the Parisian ones. It always was manifest that she was a gifted and perceptive intellectual. However, because of the stresses involved in the divorce, this study had to be abandoned.

At that time, there was no support available for a woman in such straits, and there was no such thing as a government programme to help such a woman find her way. There was no recourse. She was on her own. Few people could manage to do what Dia understood that she had to do. Nevertheless, despite this separation and rupture (he very soon re-married), she managed to maintain an attitude of forgiveness towards her former husband until the time of his repose on 3 February 1985, but the forgiveness continued permanently. Dia continued to have good and frequent contact with her children, and to support and raise them from a distance, as it were, until they were adults. Nevertheless, her love and God’s Providence saw to the meeting of the spiritual and other needs of them all.

Consolation in Faith

During all these years of hardship, pain and privation, and then of child-rearing, studying and teaching, Dia remained faithful to the Church of her ancestors. She loved its beauty, and she was fascinated by its theology, which she relished discussing, even to the point of argument. Indeed, she enjoyed watching others have similar debates and discussions. She loved recalling one occasion in which several men were impressing their hands and fingers on the table before them, and vigorously gesticulating in the air as they discussed some matters of their faith.

Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Ottawa

Dia was both a lover of the Tradition and a refreshingly forward-looking person ; for she believed that in every age the Church (this includes the people, not just the institution) must reach out and engage people where they are. Because of her early formation, and because of her understanding of the Faith, Dia was always concerned about the Christian formation of her children.

Founding of Holy Transfiguration Mission in Ottawa, 1980

Although Dia had been a faithful member of the Russian-speaking parish of Saint Nicholas in Ottawa for nearly 2 decades, it was this concern for her children that eventually led her to participate in the establishment of the Holy Transfiguration Mission on Ottawa’s Forward Avenue (a very fitting name for its placement). This mission consisted largely of young people who wanted an Orthodox community in which English was the language of services. The mission was founded in 1978 under the leadership of the recent-convert Father John Scratch.

Dia often reminisced that the years at the Holy Transfiguration Mission (where many called her the “mother of the parish”) were some of the most fulfilling of her life. What is remarkable here is that this mission functioned until 1987 in the very house where some of her children and grand-children still lived. The Lord sometimes uses what seems to be an inexplicable situation for accomplishing His good will. The good arising from all this is far more than can be written here, and it is possibly beyond all explanation.

Holy Tranfiguration Mission, Ottawa, 1987

By now, Dia had been able to go to help an old friend by living with her as a companion, cook and house-keeper until this friend reposed in 1982. This was the Baroness Dina von Hahn. She was the widow of Baron Cecil von Hahn, a member of the Ösel (an important island in the Gulf of Riga) branch of this family, which was associated with long service in the Russian Empire, and from which came the noble title. Cecil was a prominent personality amongst other nobles from Latvia who had opened the way for post-war immigration to Canada.

Amalgamation of the mission and the cathedral ; monastic beginnings, 1987

After the Holy Transfiguration Mission amalgamated with the parish of Saint Nicholas under Bishop Seraphim’s guidance in 1987 (later to become the Annunciation/Saint Nicholas Cathedral), Dia participated in this move, which meant returning to the little church-building at 55 Clarey Avenue. However, this would not be for long. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the death of her former husband, she left Canada for a time. This time, she travelled to the Russian Women’s Monastery of the Protection in Bussy-en-Othe, in Bourgogne, France, where her serious monastic formation began. While she was in Bussy, she came to know the former Abbess Feodosia, about whom she liked to share anecdotes.

Holy Protection Monastery and Temple, Bussey-en-Othe

It was here also that she also came to know Mother Olga (Slezkine), who later became the abbess of the monastery. Dia highly respected and loved this highly-educated and intelligent woman. It was in Bussy also that Dia had many encounters with Matushka Marie Meyendorff and her family. She had known them before, when she lived in France.

Before her return to Canada, Dia also spent some time being the live-in “guardian” of the Church of Saints Alexander Nevsky and Saint Seraphim of Sarov, one of the Russian Exarchate churches in Liège, Belgium, where she assisted Archimandrite Gabriel (de Vylder), who would later become the Archbishop of Western Europe under Constantinople in Paris.

Saints Alexander Nevsky and Seraphim of Sarov Tmple, Liège

She also made a pilgrimage to churches and monasteries in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Pskov (USSR), and Pühtitsa (Estonia). This was at the beginning of "perestroika".

Dormition Women's Monastery Pühtitsa, Estonia

Life at the Diocesan headquarters at "Fair Haven", Johnstown, Ontario, 1992

In 1992, after her return from France, Bishop Seraphim invited her to stay at the diocesan centre near Spencerville (“Fair Haven”), where she did various translations from Russian for Vladyka, and she became the ”chief cook and receiver of guests”. It was there, too, that she was soon tonsured to be a rasophor nun. She took the name Dorofea (a Russian variant of Dorothy).

Monastery of Saint Silouan the Athonite, Johnstown, Ontario

Monastic Tonsure, 2000

On 8 March 2000, the bishop tonsured her to the small schema (stavrophor). Mother Dorofea had taken the name Dorofea because of the life and example of Saint Dorofea (Dorothy) (†1629) of Kashin (a town in the Tver Oblast) in Russia, not far from Moscow. After this, she was no longer “Sister Dorofea”, but “Mother Dorofea”, which then became affectionately adjusted by everyone to be “Mama Baba”. “Mama Baba” strongly wanted to avoid all pretension and barriers. She behaved as if she were mother to everyone, and she was the official and unofficial grandmother of a great many children and young people. In harmony with her lifelong offering of hospitality with love (and reflecting monastic tradition), the hands of “Mama Baba” were never idle. It was her daily occupation prayerfully to be crocheting rugs from remnants of yarn and/or rags made into a sort of yarn, or to be crocheting or knitting clothes for children or sweaters for adults.

After her departure from the Church of Saints Alexander Nevsky and Seraphim of Sarov in Liège, Belgium, in the November-December parish newsletter of 1994, the following editorial was published :

Farewell, au revoir, do svidanié chère soeur Dia [...].
Car je veux croire que nous te reverrons, que nous t'entendrons encore lire le Prokimenon et les Actes, chaque
mot prononcé d'une voix claire et aussi tombant dans nos coeurs. [...]
Septembre 1993 : qui s'attendait à rencontrer durant la fête paroissiale cette petite personne vêtue de noir
et portant l'apostolnik, apprendre qu'elle allait partager notre vie écclésiale durant une année. Son sourire
chaleureux, sa gaieté naturelle sont allés droit au coeur de tous. Si nos l'avons adoptée d'emblée, nous ne
nous rendons pas compte de la place qu'elle allait prendre durant la célébration liturgique. Sa présence, sa
connaissance parfaite des services, tant en slavon qu'en français, sa capacité de chanter tous les hymnes,
son art de la lecture des psaumes la rendaient indispensable et son absence créera un grand vide.
Mais il y avait aussi sa chaleur humaine, sa capacité d'écoute, chacun pouvant se considérer son ami
privilégié.
Sa jeunesse d'esprit, son entrain ont creé un climat dans la salle comme dans le petit jardin. La paroisse
était devenue vivante. Les étrangers, mais surtout les refugiés ont osé venir, parler et s'exprimer.
Elle était là, si simple, si aimante, ayant grand soin de ne pas montrer sa santé chancelante, ses
inquiètudes, sa suite de malheurs durant sa vie laïque, que l'on se dit que notre Seigneur Jésus Christ doit
particulièrement l'aimer.
Vous nous maquerez beaucoup, Chère Soeur Dia,
priez pour nous et pour notre paroisse.
par Maya Dourassoff
Au Canada, l'evêque Seraphim a conféré à soeur Dia, la tonsure de la moniale-Rasophore, le 15 octobre 1994.
Elle a reçu le nom Dorothée.
Hiéromone Gabriël

Christian life

Although weak physically, and often in pain because of almost 30 years of diabetic suffering and its complications, Mother Dorofea was a person of very strong character. In her mind and heart there were certain constant, never-waning attitudes. She loved the poor — both the economically down-trodden and the emotionally crippled. She detested oppression of any sort — political, economic, or spiritual. This is revealed in one of her favourite sayings, “‘What is the difference between communism and capitalism ?’ The answer is, ‘In communism, man oppresses man ; in capitalism, it is the other way round’”. She strongly felt that the trouble with both systems is that they are logical, philosophical, economic systems that tend to encourage self-serving, and that do not consult God in any real and honest way. She felt that such systems tend to be relentless (regardless of well-intentioned ideals).

Mother Dorofea loved both the beauty of Orthodox worship and the teachings of the Gospels, but she hated falseness, legalism and religious nit-picking. Indeed, many people will compare her favourably with the New-Martyr Saint Marie (Skobtsova) of Paris. Many people experienced her as unconditionally loving and completely forgiving. She was in many ways a living icon of longsuffering, Christ-like, loving behaviour. Her love and faith were tested during her last months. She suffered from a heart-attack, and she also found that she had a melanoma, which quickly spread. It was from this combination of illnesses that she ultimately succumbed.

A published interview

As with much of the previous information, the following words are taken from an article by Mother Sophia (Zion) in the "Canadian Orthodox Messenger" of 2004 :

Over the years, many persons commented that Mother Dorofea had her own unique concept of ‘freedom’, which was
one of the major themes of her life. When he went to the diocesan centre to do an oral-history interview with
her, the Archpriest John Jillions was also struck by this theme. In his homily at her funeral liturgy on June
26, he said the following deeply moving words :

‘[...] last February I had the great pleasure to interview her about her life and the early days of the
Cathedral. Her conversation was filled with a wonderful combination of joy, sharp wit and disarming honesty.
At one point I asked her what message she might wish to give the clergy. Here is her answer, but as you can
see what she says is valuable for everyone who cares about the Church.

“Put your rubrics away a little bit. You are there, on the one hand, for God, but be there also for people.
And try to make it so that people will love it, rather than be afraid, in fear of God. Simply to love it.
And you can love it, I think, when you feel in it a certain freedom. [...] I’m not saying you should allow
whatever behaviour. But it’s not behaviour, it’s the attitude, it’s the feeling. It’s the feeling of ‘my
church’, I love it but at the same time I enjoy it. You know, I value freedom more than anything else”. She
went on to speak of four moments of freedom she experienced in her life.

The first was when her parents died (she was seven or eight). “I didn’t realize it till later, but I felt I’m
free, not to do as I wish, but free to be myself. I’m out of that mold that most parents try to make for you
and somehow try to squish you in it”. [...]

The second moment was when she was 12 or 13. She was attending a strict, highly-regimented Catholic school in
Paris run by nuns (“we had to bow down and kiss every statue when we passed by”) and “I couldn’t think of an
honourable way to get out”. But one day, “when I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, I overheard a nun
asking forgiveness of a little girl because she was wrong. [...] It struck me that this elderly nun (later on
I realized that she was not that elderly!) was asking forgiveness from this little kid who was only two years
younger than me. [...] Ten minutes later I was in love with that school and with all of them. I realized that
everything that irritated me was like nothing. It didn’t bug me anymore, because the real thing I caught in
that moment of her asking forgiveness. And everything else had no meaning. [...] The main thing was there and
I adored that school. [...] This was freedom from those prejudices of ‘not mine’, ‘foreign’ and I embraced it
with all my heart”.

“Third was when Vladyka tonsured me. I never thought that monasticism could bring you freedom, total freedom.
I can be myself, God has accepted me, that was the feeling”.

“And fourth was when I had my heart attack. It was a very pleasant feeling. You don’t know if you’re going
to survive, but this has nothing to do with it. ‘How good it is to be in the arms of death’, as Mother Nila
once told me. Yes, that was a tremendous moment of freedom. The next one will come with death. That’s what
I hope. Why not?”

Repose, 2004

Mother Dorofea (Mirochnitchenko) reposed in Ottawa, Ontario on 23 June, 2004. This was the very day on which the Icon of the Mother of God of Tikhvin returned to Russia. It was received by Patriarch Aleksey II (Ridiger) in Moscow. There, for the next 4 days, the icon was venerated by hundreds of thousands of faithful Christians. En route, the icon had stopped for several days in Riga, where very large crowds of believers venerated it in the newly-restored and renovated cathedral. Knowing this would happen, Mother Dorofea had arranged for a photograph of the Abbess Evgenia to be taken to Riga by Bishop Seraphim (Storheim) on her behalf, and to be given to the monastery there. The nuns were very grateful to receive the photo. There was no photograph of this brave and exemplary abbess that had survived all the years of destruction and communism. During the last days of her earthly sojourn, Mother Dorofea was well aware of the progress of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. She knew where the icon would be, and when. Indeed, some have remarked on the fact of the conjunction of the icon’s return and of Mother Dorofea’s repose, because she had departed from Riga at about the same time as this icon was taken away for protection, and she reposed on the day of its return to Russia.

The funeral prayers and the Funeral Service for the Burial of a Monk were offered at the Annunciation to the Theotokos-Saint Nicholas Cathedral at 55, Clarey Avenue, in Ottawa, on 25-26 June.

Her body was afterwards interred in the Saint Nicholas section of the Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa.

Grave-marker

Reflections

In conversations with Mother Nil (Maikapar) about Mother Dorofea, Mother Nil often included the remark : “Of course, you understand, do you not, that she is a saint ?”

Dia’s friends would say that despite all the pain and suffering in her life, she was always joyful. She was an extraordinary person. She was always a model of Christian hospitality. Anyone could arrive at her door (announced or unannounced), at any time of the day or night, and the hospitable reception was always the same : warmth, joy, hugs, tea, and usually some sort of food. She had, from her time in Germany and France, learnt how to make something nourishing from almost nothing.

Nun Dorofea (Mirochnitchenko)