First African Novice Enters Russian Orthodox Monastery

According to the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, Moscow monasteries are now expecting newcomers from Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.

The Russian Orthodox Monastery of the Nativity of God's Mother Convent in Moscow has welcomed Abigail Jepchirchir from Kenya - its first novice from an African country.

“Abigail Jepchirchir, daughter of the Dean of Nandi district (Kenya), Priest Titus, was admitted to the Nativity of God's Mother Convent. The girl, who aspired to monasticism, has already integrated into the community and performed her first obediences,” Leonid Gorbachev, the Metropolitan of Klin and Patriarchal Exarch of Africa wrote on Telegram.

Metropolitan Leonid also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Abbess Victorina (Perminova), the Abbess of the Mother of God-Nativity Monastery, for the warmth and maternal care she has shown to the first novice from Africa.

Earlier, when Abigail arrived to Moscow, he wrote that her desire to devote herself to monasticism had not been heard in the Greek Alexandrian Church.

The Moscow Convent of the Conception expressed a desire to receive African novices. The Metropolitan said that new novices from Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria are now expected to arrive in their hordes.