On Thursday, April 25, 2024, the fifth event of the series of online lectures “Time for Action” organized by the Volos Academy for Theological Studies took place. The speaker was Prof. Dr. Paul Ladouceur, Professor at the Orthodox School of Theology at the University of Toronto and Laval University, Canada. The topic was “Saint Mary (Skobtsova) of Paris as a case of ‘liturgy after the liturgy’ avant la lettre”. The lecture was in French with interpretation into Greek, and the discussion was moderated by Dr. Andreas Alexopoulos, Primary Education Teacher and Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Theology, University of Athens. The lecture was also part of the “Litugry after the liturgy” series, organized by the Holy Metropolis of France and the Vicariate of French-speaking parishes (Vicariat Sainte Marie de Paris et Saint Alexis d’Ugine, Ecumenical Patriarchate) in collaboration with the Volos Academy for Theological Studies. The videorecording of the event is available at the YouTube channel of the Vicariate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyme0WnOJg4) in French, while the Greek version is available at the Volos Academy channel (https://youtu.be/yrsd44pFt4U)
Prof. Ladouceur presented the tumultuous biography of Saint Mary, born Lisa Pilenko in 1891, including the years of her youth as a talented poet in St. Petersburg, then her engagement with the Soviet Revolution, her escape from Russia and her move to Constantinople, Belgrade and, later, Paris; and finally her mature years in the French capital, where she took the monastic vows and devoted herself to the care of all kinds of sufferers, staying “in the world but not of the world”. Emphasis was placed on the ups and downs of her family life and the death of her daughter, Anastasia, from influenza in 1926, an event which seems to have played a decisive role in her re-conversion to Christianity. During the years of the Nazi occupation of Paris, she systematically helped the persecuted Jews, as a result of which she herself was taken to the Ravensbrück camp and killed in gas chamber on the Holy Saturday of 1945, voluntarily taking, as it is said, the position of one of her fellow prisoners. For her help to the Jewish population of Paris, she was awarded the title of the “righteous among the nations” in 1985, while in 2004 she was canonized as a saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The next event of the “Time for Action” series will take place on May 13 and it will be a round table on the theme “Synodality and Ecumenical Dialogue in the 21st century”. Speakers include Prof. Dr. Christophe Chalamet (Associate Professor of Theology, University of Geneva, Switzerland) and Rev. Dr. Dimitrios Bathrellos (Visiting Professor of Dogmatic Theology, Holy Cross Orthodox School, Boston, MA; Visiting Professor, Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, UK, Volos Academy BoD member), and the discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Moschos (Professor of Church History, Faculty of Theology, University of Athens, Volos Academy BoD member).
