2. Metropolitan Antony.  Impressions of Abbess Elisabeth.

 

“At the time when Vladyka Nicolas was ordained, they brought the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kursk to London for the first time.  There were many healings - not only Russians, but English people also had healings when they came and prayed before the miraculous icon.  With the icon came Archbishop Theophan of Kursk.

 

“Metropolitan Antony first stayed at Nashdom Abbey (an Anglican Monastery).  He was not very happy there, so my parents asked him to stay with us, and so he stayed with us for two weeks.  There were many services, many meetings, and while he stayed he gave long talks about different Church matters.  I remember particularly how he explained the great personality of Patriarch Nikon (17th cent.), who was misunderstood by his contemporaries.  He explained what a right vision he had of Russia as the symphony of the Church, on the one hand, and the Tsar, representing the state, on the other.  He spoke much about spiritual life and how to prepare for it; it was always with so much peace and inner joy, which gave one great encouragement.  Some non-Orthodox theologians (I do not remember their names) used to send their work for him to read and give them his opinion.  What one notices in him is an immense power of the intellect - more than just intelligence - a great noble character and a very generous humble heart.

 

“He had a room in our house.  In that room I left a book, a description of Kiev, of all the holy places of Kiev, by - if I am not mistaken - Mouravieff. He found this book and read it and thanked me for leaving it, because it reminded him of all the time he had lived in Kiev and all the shrines and holy places. He said it made him feel as if he were back in Kiev.

 

“We had a dog, a Doberman Pinscher called Drouzhok, and for some of our visitors he had a special dog’s love.  Metropolitan Antony had very bad feet; he used to wear special boots and then change into slippers when he came home.  One day he came back very tired; there had been a lecture or something and I was alone in the house.  He and his assistant, Father Theodosy, were looking for his slippers.  I hadn’t seen them; then I said, ‘Drouzhok!’  He had taken the Metropolitan’s slippers and slept on them.  He was out, he missed him, so he took his slippers.  If there was anybody whom he liked very much, he would go and take their shoes, put them under the cushion and sleep on them.  So the Metropolitan was very touched.  Drouzhok knew some tricks: if you wrote the number ‘2’ he would bark twice.  If you wrote ‘4’ he barked four times, and so on.  The Metropolitan said he was quite a genius.  When he wrote to us, he always sent greetings to our ‘genius of a dog,’ who had such a special love for the Metropolitan.

 

“The thing I really want to say is that Metropolitan Antony was clairvoyant (‘yasnovidyashchi’).  He had such pure crystal-blue eyes, and when you looked at him he read your soul like an open book.  There was a lady - she has died now - a very ‘difficult’ character, and she wanted to see him.  She was with him quite a long time.  When she came out, she said, ‘If ever anyone were to tell me that there is a saint who could read one’s life, I would have to believe it.’  He had never met her, but he had told her all her life in detail.  He made a great impression on her.  He gave her an epitemia.  After two years she had to go to Yugoslavia to be released [from the epitemia]; and she went.

 

“And with me - he had a talk and he looked at me and he said, ‘You are not thinking about marriage, you are thinking about monasticism.’  And I said, ‘Yes.’  And I thought there and then to go.  He says, ‘No, the convent where you will be doesn’t exist.  In ten years’ time you will be there.’  In exactly ten years time I went there - in 1939.  Mother Maria [Robinson] came to England and she offered to get me a visa.  I was never very strong, so I stayed mostly at home.  My parents were very attached to me.  Metropolitan Antony, before he left, had a long talk with them.  I never found out what he said, but when the time came for me to go they said, ‘We can’t resist, because Metropolitan Antony said it is the will of God.’  It came at the worst possible time.  My father was ill, my sisters were trying to find some work; there were all these difficulties but they still obeyed and they blessed me to go.  That is the great spiritual courage of Metropolitan Antony.”