On Saturday, July 19, 2025, the feast day of St. Sisoes the Great and the eve of the feast of St. Akakios of Sinai, our Mother Superior, Mati Mardarija, was elevated to Abbess. Immediately afterward, Sister Xenia was tonsured into the Small Schema and received the name Mother Silouana, after St. Silouan the Athonite.
The service took place at St. Sava’s Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois, beside the relics of St. Mardarije of Libertyville. His Grace Bishop Serafim performed the service, and many members of our parish made the trip from Kansas City to be with us for the beginning of this new chapter for our Sisterhood.
This was a service unlike any other – deceptively brief and simple, yet profoundly, ineffably moving. Our spiritual father remarked that what had just taken place was “the most serious thing ever,” but that most of the faithful in attendance did not understand this fact.
How could we understand? In a society that has no concept of monasticism, seeing a woman being elevated to the Abbess of a monastery may seem equivalent to her being made the boss of a company. Likewise, someone being tonsured into the next rank of monasticism may seem equivalent to her being promoted at her job, or graduating from high school and beginning college.
The truth is that there is no worldly equivalent to what took place during this service. My mind could not understand it, but my heart did. When our Abbess was given her staff, I felt the truth and the weight of the authority she has over my soul, and knew that I am safe in a way I have never been safe before. I knew that our Sisterhood was being bound together not just in this life, but for all eternity.
When my Sister was tonsured, I saw that she was not simply the same person but now with a different name, but she had become a new creation. The prayers and exhortations came not just from the mouth of the bishop, but from Christ Himself. The vows were not just heard by those present in the temple, but by all of Heaven.
His Grace quoted Elder Ephraim of Arizona, who said that if people knew how hard the monastic life is, no one would become monastics; but if people knew the glory reserved for monastics in heaven, everyone would become monastics.
It is all too easy to lose sight of the nobility and majesty of our calling in the grind of day-to-day life. This service was a ray of divine light providing the remembrance and grace needed to begin to live up to this calling.
Through the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Seeker of the Lost; St. Mardarije of Libertyville; St. Silouan the Athonite; and all the saints, may the Lord continue to remind us all of the true purpose of our life on earth. May He continue to show us how to love Him and give ourselves fully to Him, regardless of the external circumstances of our lives.