A Living Witness in French Orthodoxy

Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, a pillar of the Orthodox Church in Western Europe, recently passed away at the tender age of 98. I last saw her in October, following the Divine Liturgy we celebrated in “The Crypt,” the parish of the Holy Trinity, located in the Russian Orthodox cathedral on the rue Daru, in Paris. Elisabeth came up to venerate the cross I held for the faithful, and she embraced me as well (my wife and I had known her and cherished her friendship for more than three decades). Then she smiled, in her inimitable way. As always, she radiated grace, warmth, humility, self-possession and affection. Three days before her death, she had participated in a colloquium in England. Her energy, and her devotion to Christ and the Church, were a constant example for all of us.

She became known in the United States because of her passionate interest in the “role of women in the Church.” Some people reviled her for her carefully framed and balanced articles on the subject, others embraced her as well as her opinions, seeing in both an element of genuine prophecy. Her monumental biography of Father Lev Gillet, “A Monk of the Eastern Church,” was recently translated by the St John the Baptist Orthodox Monastery in England, and more recently a series of articles titled Discerning the Signs of the Times was published by St Vladimir’s Seminary. Together with a few shorter works, these are readily available to English language readers.

Elisabeth’s funeral drew great crowds of people and elicited countless written testimonies of gratitude and admiration. As a modest witness to her place in French Orthodoxy, and her significance as a theologian and “woman of the Church,” we include here a translation of the sermon, preached at her burial service by her longtime friend and spiritual father, Protopresbyter Boris Bobrinskoy, Rector of the Holy Trinity Parish and former Dean of the Saint Sergius Theological Institute in Paris.

“There are a great many of us here today, to surround and accompany Elisabeth during her final voyage, her final ‘Pascha,’ that is, her “passage” from mortal existence to immortal life. As her children, grandchildren, friends, brothers and sisters in the great family of the Church, all of us have been marked by her loving and demanding presence. From around the entire world there have come in her regard expressions of affection, prayer and gratitude.

“She was for me a very faithful friend from the time of my youth, and she liked to remind me of that fact.

“Having entered the Orthodox Church as an adult, she never renounced the [Protestant] Church of her birth, and she stood firm her entire life, clear-eyed and with courage, against all the compromises and judgments made by the various Churches which again and again befoul and rend Christ’s seamless Robe.

“Elisabeth discovered Orthodoxy primarily in its Russian tradition, first of all in the charismatic person of Father Sergei Bulgakov, for whom she always felt a special veneration. In that tradition, she found particular richness in the great saints, whom she made known in her writings, and particularly those who by their life accepted an extreme humiliation and derision, in the image of our Lord’s own humiliation.

“We owe a great deal to Elisabeth in our understanding of ecclesial life and of the Orthodox witness here in the West. French Orthodoxy was at the heart of her ecclesial service. She shared this service most particularly with Fr. Lev Gillet, and she did much to make him known and loved. For more than 45 years she contributed to the work of the French theological review Contacts. Overall she concerned herself with problems within the Church and world of today, striving always to “discern the signs of the times.” Working through the Orthodox Fraternity in Western Europe, she contributed significantly toward realisation of a local Orthodox Church. She spent long years as well serving as the Orthodox president of ACAT [‘Christian Action Against Torture’], committing herself concretely and personally to the struggle against every kind of injustice and inhumanity. This is why I need to stress the prophetic quality of her spiritual witness. Yet to speak of prophets is always to remind ourselves that their words come from a voice in the wilderness, with its uncompromising demand for truth and transparency.

“Ecumenical dialogue was one of Elisabeth’s main preoccupations, ever since the days of her Protestant theological studies under the great future Catholic theologian, Louis Bouyer.

“It is of course necessary to mention as well one of the major themes of her thought, namely the place and role of women in the Church. It is not simply a matter of the ordination of women to priestly ministry (in which she certainly believed). Her questionings on this subject were of particular usefulness, it seems to me, because they obliged Orthodox theologians to reconsider the ancient arguments of Tradition and to reflect in depth on the fundamental problem of anthropology, the matter of the difference between the sexes and the implications of that difference for the life of the Church. If this reflection became such an important element in her thinking, it is because no fundamental considration had ever been given to the question prior to her time. Yet well beyond the specific question of the ordination of women to the priesthood, Elisabeth’s chief concern was for the dignity of women and their overall place within the life of the Church. For many years, Elisabeth was the lay president of our parish [i.e., head of the Parish Council]. She liked to recall the words of St Basil, who affirmed that woman was also created in the image of God.

“Today, with very real feelings of sadness because of the disappearance of a great friend to all who were close to her, whether they are present here in body or in spirit, we also feel a deep sense of gratitude for all that Elisabeth has been and meant to us over the many years of a truly exemplary life. We accompany her today, as she rises toward the Kingdom of God: the Kingdom which she bore within herself, and whose light, warmth and joy she so abundantly transmitted to us. Amen.”