NEWS FROM THE DIOCESES
 
DIOCESE OF BERLIN AND GERMANY: May 22, 2005

His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus Visits a Convent

There exists a small monastic community in Munich under the prayerful protection of Holy Martyr Elizabeth. The nuns live for now in an apartment not far from the Cathedral of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, where they perform the daily cycle of services according to the "skete" rule. The sisters perform all sorts of obediences: the sewing of monastic garb, clerical headgear known as klobuki and kamilavki, some embroidered in gold, they bake prosphoras and study at the Theology Department of Munich University. They participate in the Sunday School at the Cathedral as well.

Naturally, all those who wish to enter this monastic community could not be accommodated by this apartment. There is also no way of admitting pilgrims.

For this reason, with the help of some zealous friends of the convent, the nuns began to search for a suitable site. At the beginning of this year, with God's help, the nuns found a location with a large house on the outskirts of Munich, where, God willing, the community will move to this autumn.

On May 22, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus visited the monastic community and, inspecting the new site, invoked God's blessing upon all the nuns and wished that the prayerful intercession of St Elizabeth would always be with them