There are many publications available on the book market nowadays. Each book lover can find what she is looking for on the shelves of a bookshop. Some people swallow pulp novels and light fiction like doughnuts, while others enjoy works by Umberto Eco or Carlos Castaneda like Château Lafite. However, there are some people who are eager to prove that books are an anachronism, that people forget the skill of reading and their interest in books is bound to go extinct. You know, it is unsurprising to hear this opinion in our digital age, and you might be tempted to agree with it to some extent when you observe young people who wear earplugs and fix their looks on tablets and iPhones for entertainment. Nevertheless, sometimes you might see them reading some texts from the glowing screens of their mobile devices. But at that very moment you are likely to think, “He’s a student reading an ebook not for fun but because he needs it for an exam…”

On Form and Content

Printed books are still alive, and they are still being read. They are read to a lesser extent than they would be ideally but they are read! Long established and new publishers compete for the readers, for the chance to share their opinions and texts with them. Anyway, it is not about how the text is presented but what is in it that I would like to talk now. What message does a modern book convey? What does it teach? What does it inspire for? Are there publishers who speak out loud about Christian and humanistic values, about the meaning of life, love, and eternity?

It seems to me that there are not too many publishers and printers who consider their books as a continuation of the liturgy. The majority in the publishing business are more preoccupied with satisfying emotional requirements of their readers, with the propaganda of natural, rather than spiritual, values. Giving people food for the soul and helping them to get closer to God is a difficult task.

What can we do? Can we change anything? What should we read about: the earthly or the heavenly things, the temporary or the eternal? Should we strive for virtue or remain in the emptiness?

Giving people a chance to choose, showing them an alternative, helping them to distinguish between the natural and the spiritual. This has been the purpose of the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent, established in 2001. With prayer and the blessing of Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of the Convent, books filled with the light of God’s love and books where one can find answers to any questions have been published here for over a decade.

Preview books from the Publishing House of St.Elisabeth Convent

Made with the Blessing

The first book published in the Convent tells about the elders and the meaning of their guidance, about the necessity to submit one’s will to an experienced teacher whose advice is indispensable for those willing to go on a spiritual journey. This 100-page book was paperback and had the press run of 2,000 copies. It was printed on a risograph – a hybrid of a photocopy machine and an offset printing press. The book was compiled in 2002 by Nun Eupraxia (Shilenkova).

— It wasn’t my own idea, — Nun Eupraxia recalls. — Everything in the Convent is made with a blessing and, hopefully, in accordance with God’s will. Nun Martha (Guskova) who was in charge of the Publishing House at that time, was planning a series of similar publications.

The second book published in the Convent hit the presses in 2002. It was prepared in collaboration with the Publishing House of the Orthodox Fraternity in honor of St Michael the Archangel and printed on newsprint paper in the Belorussian Printing House. This book had 600 pages, a hard cover and a press run of 10,100 copies.

This book was followed by the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. Brochures. Booklets. Calendars. Posters… The scope of our publishing activities widened. The books were decorated with photos and pictures. At the same time, the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent explored its audience, developed topics and directions of its activity, established a closely connected team, and become more experienced. Today one can easily say that the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent has found its niche, has developed its unique style, by which one can unmistakably distinguish its publications.

“I have been working in the Publishing House since the very beginning,” Maria Mosilevich, the technical editor, recalls. “There are plenty of great releases, I don't even know which one to highlight… I would suggest reading the Word of the Spiritual Father series. This is a book of sermons by Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok and his answers to the questions of parishioners and visitors of our website. The Happy Ones is another interesting book, which contains life stories of people who learned to love and whom God took to the heaven to dwell with Him.

Last year (2013) the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent prepared and published 79 titles, with press runs varying from 1,000 to 30,000 copies. We published not only books for worship (the Holy Gospel, the Book of Hours, prayer books, canons and akathists) but also spiritual and fiction books, Orthodox calendars and books for children. Among the authors of these books were Helena Mikhalenko, Tatiana Dashkevich, Andrei Smetanin, Dmitry Shevarov, et al.

A famous name does not matter

Today the Publishing House has ten members of staff: editors, proofreaders, typesetters, artists, designers. We have permanent full-time authors and part-time or freelance workers. It is not an easy task even for a well-known author to be approved for publication in the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent. Dozens of essays or books printed by secular publishers are not enough.

“A 'trendy' name does not matter when we choose which authors to publish,” Nun Antonina (Semenova), the head of the Publishing House, believes. “Apart from good writing skills, the author must have a heart that yearns for God because it is He who endows us with this or that talent. We must bear that in mind and bring the fruit of our labor back to its Rightful Owner.”

Alexander Beganski, the chief editor of the Publishing House, agrees with that opinion. He has been in this position since 2010. For him, like for all other employees of the Publishing House, work in the Convent is more than just a job. It is first of all the common prayer that starts every work day and gives birth to mutual understanding, the feeling of unity, and the books.

“I like the book by Metropolitan Philaret (Vakhromeyev) Learning Love more than everything else we've published,”‌ Alexander says. “This book contains selected sermons of the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus from 2009—2013. Love as the primary commandment and God as Love are the main topics of this book.”

This book, incidentally, was awarded a diploma of the 2014 National Book Art Contest in the nomination Spirituality.

For the Sake of the Future

Much attention these days is paid to making children books. This is unsurprising. Our children are our future and tomorrow depends on the books they learn from. Several books from the Loved Kids series were awarded diplomas at the 2014 National Book Art Contest. This year, a Christmas selection of short stories for children entitled The Golden Night received a diploma in the nomination Growing With Books.

Today the Publishing House is busy undertaking several projects for children at the same time. Editor Angelina Mendeleva has been preparing an Easter selection of short stories for children Christ is Risen, My Joy!; a children's book about the life of the Most Holy Mother of God The Heavenly Flower; Lullaby ABC; and a book with 3D illustrations Jonah and the Whale.

“Our project A Gift for the Little Christian deserves special attention,” Angelina told us. “It is a secret box containing a prayer book for kids and a cardboard figurine of an Angel. I think it will make a perfect gift for a newborn. We wanted to accomplish such a project for a long time and, praise the Lord, we did it.”

Editor Helena Kebets is in charge of games for kids' development. Wooden puzzle boxes, coloring books, flashcards, and jigsaw puzzles that teach letters and numbers are already available. These are books, too, even though they do not contain any text. Children read with the help of images.

“The Learning To Count jigsaw puzzle will help children to learn numbers while playing,” Helena believes. “The box with coloring cards contains not only the characters of well-known fairy tales but also many fascinating assignments that will enhance the development of creative abilities of your kid. The cards are very convenient. One can draw on them, then wipe it out, and draw again.

It seems to me that anyone who has ever held a book prepared and published by the Publishing House of St Elisabeth Convent in her hands must have felt the warmth it radiates. If you haven’t yet, why not try it now?

By Demetrius Artiukh

The image of Our Lady of Kazan is said to have come to Russia from Constantinople in the 13th century. After the Tatars besieged Kazan and made it the capital of their khanate in 1438, the icon disappeared, and it is not mentioned again until the 16th century, some years after the liberation of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552.

After a fire destroyed Kazan in 1579, the Virgin appeared in a prophetic dream to a 10-year-old girl named Matrona and told her where to find the precious image again. As instructed, Matrona told the archbishop about her dream, but he would not take her seriously. After two more such dreams, on July 8, 1579, the girl and her mother themselves dug up the image, buried under the ashes of a house, where it had been hidden long before to save it from the Tatars. The unearthed icon looked as bright and beautiful as if it were new. The archbishop repented of his unbelief and took the icon to the Church of St. Nicholas, where a blind man was cured that very day. Hermogen, the priest at this church, later became Metropolitan of Kazan. He brought the icon to Kazan's Cathedral of the Annunciation and established July 8 as a feast in honor of the Theotokos of Kazan. It is from Hermogen's chronicle, written at the request of the tsar in 1595, that we know of these events.

By 1612, when Moscow was occupied by Polish invaders, Hermogen had become Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. From prison, he called for a three-day fast and ordered the icon of Our Lady of Kazan to be brought to Princes Minin and Pozharsky, who were leading the resistance to the occupation. This icon—possibly the original, but more likely a copy—was carried before their regiments as they fought to regain the capital from the Poles. When the Polish army was finally driven from Moscow on October 22, 1612, the victory was attributed to the intercession of the Mother of God, and the Kazan icon became a focal point for Russian national sentiments. Later that year, when Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich came to the throne, he appointed both July 8 and October 22 as feasts in honor of Our Lady of Kazan.
The victorious Prince Dmitry Pozharsky financed the construction of a small wooden church dedicated to the Virgin of Kazan in the Moscow Kremlin. The icon was kept there until the small church burnt down in 1632. The tsar ordered the construction of a larger brick cathedral to replace it. After its completion in 1638, the icon remained there in Moscow's Kazan Cathedral for nearly two centuries. It was regularly borne in solemn liturgical processions along the city walls as the protectress of Moscow. The intercession of Our Lady of Kazan was successfully invoked against a Swedish invasion in 1709, and again when Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. To commemorate this latter victory, the Kazan icon was moved to the new Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1821.

By this time, the Kazan icon had achieved immense popularity, and there were nine or ten separate miracle-working copies of the icon around the country. There is considerable disagreement about which of these, if any, was the original. Some claim the original remained housed in Kazan, while others hold that the one moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg was the original. Many experts, however, believe the original was lost and both of the venerated Kazan icons were early copies. In any case, both icons disappeared in the early 20th century. The one in Kazan was stolen in 1904 and probably destroyed by the thieves, who were more interested in its jeweled gold covering. The one in St. Petersburg disappeared after the October Revolution of 1917. Some say it was smuggled out of the country to protect it from the Bolsheviks, while others suggest the Communists themselves hid it and later sold it abroad. But during World War II, an icon of the Virgin of Kazan surfaced in Leningrad to lead a procession around the fortifications of the Nazi-besieged city.

The wonderworking icons Our Lady of Sitka and Our Lady of Soufanieh are both of the Kazan type.

Source: orthodoxwiki.org/Our_Lady_of_Kazan

October has begun. It is a warm day, and the sky clears up by the afternoon. All is quiet and bright at the Women's Rehabilitation Center of St Elisabeth Convent. The golden autumn is at its best: wind sets the leaves of the beautiful birch trees in constant motion; the dahlia, marigold, and aster flowers are in full bloom; the fruit of this blessed season — the red apples, the deep blue grapes, and yellow and orange pumpkins — please the eye and the heart.

The almost ready new bright wooden church in honor of St Sergius stands surrounded by birch trees, the leaves of which have hardly been touched by the golden color. If you come closer, it looks like a big and noble knight in a fairytale palace.

There is no one outdoors. All sisters are having an akathist. I am met by cats who approach me trustfully, wishing to get to know me. “Pyatnashka” (dotted cat) purrs loudly and unceremoniously jumps into my car. In a couple of minutes, it is sitting on my shoulder.

A visit to the rehabilitation center for me is like visiting a sick person in a hospital. This time, it is easier because we already know each other. A hospital is not just a place where sick people have to stay: it is also the place where they are healed. It depends on care, a doctor's skill, and of course on the hospital itself, for it is said that even walls may help in healing. We are not going to talk about the social importance of this place and about the life stories of the women who now stay here. It is no secret for everyone that social rehabilitation in the center is a "life saver" for the drowning. Today, on this wonderful day, we are going to ask Nun Barbara (Atrasievich) how the construction of St Sergius Church is going on, how big the sisters' harvest this year is, and how they are going to celebrate the patron saint's day…

The builders plan to cover the church with a permanent roof by winter. What about the domes? "God willing, we will mount the domes before winter, too, it's hard to plan anything specific," Nun Barbara replies. "Right now, we are about to finish a parish house near the church. I cannot say anything about its future use — we might use it to provide accommodation for the priests who come to serve in the center, or we might use it as a guest house."

Currently, a priest visits the rehabilitation center every Tuesday. The divine services are held in the basement of the church. We hope that the Liturgy on the patron saint's day will be celebrated on the ground floor, provided the weather is fine."

There had been a church here several years ago — the parish church of v. Nialidavičy — but it had become defunct by the time our monastic sisters came here. The church was destroyed by fire on the eve of the Annunciation in 2011, precisely during the negotiations of the Convent and the authorities with regard to buying this land. The police said that the most probable reason was arson: someone had been well-informed enough to take all icons out of the church. Well, what can we say now?.. Let bygones be bygones. Only broken and besmirched bells remind of that accident now, and the sisters try not to remember evil. They have their own lives, their own homework to do. "We read an akathist daily: to St Nicholas the Wonderworker, St Mary of Egypt, St Pantheleimon, SS Cyril and Maria (parents of St Sergius of Radonezh), and the Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God. We choose a time for it depending on the season and weather conditions. In the summer, when it was hot outdoors, we prayed the akathist at lunchtime, around 1p.m. As it is getting colder outdoors, we will change the timetable to fit into the rhythm of winter chores."

The simple farm living teaches to enjoy simple things. For instance, the sisters have gathered the harvest — that's great news. They've had a good harvest of tomatoes — amazing! They tried planting the sprouts for the first time, and everything went fine: the tomatoes grew well both in a greenhouse and in the open.

At present, there are twenty-eight women at the Centre. "We have had a hike in the number of people with mental disorders lately," Nun Barbara says. "Sometimes they are not even diagnosed yet but their behavior and condition tells that they need help. They wandered far and wide and at last they landed here at the Centre.

We have decided to assign one house, the smaller one, to mothers with children due to the renovation going on. Unfortunately, it can only accommodate three or four families. Right now, there are two mothers with their children and one woman expecting a baby in the center.

See that house over there? It is for the sisters who do not want to leave us anymore, who have become permanent residents of our Centre and help us actively. One room is for the less able: currently, it is home for one old lady who was discharged from a mental clinic (she cannot talk, and no one knows anything about her) and a woman who has memory problems. She has been here for about a year. When they brought her to our center, her daughter was very anxious because doctors had told her that her mother's condition would deteriorate, that she is to be treated with extreme caution, to the extent of not even moving furniture in her room. So another sister stayed with her all the time. Now this woman can move around the rehabilitation center on her own! We even transferred her from one house into another due to the renovation, and everything went fine. It seems to me that her condition has improved noticeably, although doctors predicted it would get worse. It is with God's help that this place manages to fulfil its purpose of social rehabilitation. Everything we planned during the project planning stage is currently being implemented, albeit on a small scale…"

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ORTHODOXY AS KNOWLEDGE OF LOVE