A number of men and women have given their lives to Christ in monasticism in the past several days in dioceses of the Romanian Orthodox Church both at home and abroad.
Munich
In Munich, His Eminence Metropolitan Serafim of Germany and Central and Northern Europe celebrated the first rite of tonsure for the new St. Silouan the Athonite Monastery. The new nun was named Elizabeth.
Several little girls dressed in white and carrying candles in their hands participated in the monastic tonsure of sister Elizabeth.
Sibiu
In Sibiu, the rasophores Mothers Nektaria and Xenia were tonsured into the monastic schema at the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery in Nocrich by His Eminence Metropolitan Laruentiu of Transylvania.
Vaslui
In Vaslui, eight rasophores were tonsured into the monastic schema at Bujoreni Monastery by His Grace Bishop Ignatie of Huși.
“The brothers who have received the gift of the angelic schema are called to be like angels. It’s not simple,” Bp. Ignatie said.
“It’s very difficult to be a monk, in the truest sense of the word. But, with the grace of Christ, with His mercy towards our weaknesses, we will all succeed in being what God wants us to be,” the hierarch emphasized.
Caraș-Severin
His Grace Bishop Lucian of Caransebeș tonsured rasophore Nun Parascheva at the Holy Prophet Elijah-Vasiova Monastery in Caraș-Severin County.
Altogether, 12 men and women were tonsured in recent days.
The person who enters the monastery and wishes to become a monastic must first go through two stages: the novitiate and the rasophoria.
The novitiate is a trial period in which the brother or sister spends time in the monastery to figure out if they have an authentic vocation for monasticism. Rasophoria is a stronger covenant the novice makes with God, often likened to the betrothal.
Read more: Photo report: Orthodox monastic tonsure
