NEW YORK: February 26, 2013
The First Hierarch Sends a Greeting to Abbess Moisseia of Holy Ascension Convent on the Mt of Olives on Her 70 th Birthday

From the Editors: On Wednesday, February 27, 2013, the feast day of St Cyril, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Illuminator of the Slavs, Holy Ascension Convent on the Mount of Olives will celebrate the 70 th birthday of its Abbess Moisseia. His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York sent the following congratulatory message to the head of the monastery:

To the Very Reverend Abbess Moisseia
of Holy Ascension Convent on the Mt of Olives

Your Very Reverence, Honorable Mother Moisseia:

I greet you with a warm heart and with love on your seventieth birthday, and prayerfully wish you heavenly aid in your difficult service at our Russian Orthodox convent located on the territory of the Mother Church and the Abode of God, the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

Our monasteries have always played a great role in the history of the Russian Church and our Fatherland. It is with good reason that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote; “we are indebted to our monastics for our history and our education.” Monasteries renewed and strengthened the spirit of the people, disseminating education and culture, giving succor to the hungry, widowed, orphaned and sick; they built schools, houses of mercy, orphanages and other charitable institutions, and more than once did they save the Russian land from doom during the years of great catastrophes and wickedness. May God grant that Holy Ascension Convent on the Mt of Olives, under your leadership would be for the Holy Land just such a monastery according to our ancient Fatherland’s model, prayerfully doing great, positive work, nourishing a multitude of pilgrims and lifting their souls to God.

May the All-Merciful Lord preserve you and your sisters in good health, patience, in tireless prayer and in all success for many years to the glory of God and the benefit of all those who bow down before the Ascended Lord within the walls of your monastery!

With love in the Lord and asking for your prayers,

+HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

February 27, 2013