Remembering Mother Alexandra on the 30th anniversary of her repose
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the repose on January 21, 1991 of Mother Alexandra, founding abbess of the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, PA. Scion of the Royal Family of Romania, she was born in 1909. After exile from Romania due to its takeover by a Communist regime, she moved to the United States in 1950. A decade later, she began to discern a monastic vocation and entered a convent in France to gain experience as a nun. In 1967, she returned to America to establish a monastery for women, which would have services in English and build up a monastic foundation for the missionary vision of American Orthodoxy. For the next 24 years, Mother Alexandra was abbess of the Monastery of the Transfiguration for over a decade until her retirement, traveled widely for speaking engagements, wrote spiritual treatises and remained the Monastery’s spiritual leader until her repose following a brief illness. The Monastery, a flourishing community today, continues to live by her spiritual teachings and promote her legacy by publishing her writings. May her memory be eternal and may her teachings and prayers continue to strengthen the spiritual growth of the Orthodox Church in America.