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Monastic tonsure on the Mount of Olives

On the evening of the feast of the 1st and 2nd Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist, February 24/March 9, a monastic tonsure took place in the Holy Ascension Convent on the Mount of Olives.

In the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, the Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky) tonsured nun Lyubov (Zastavskaya) into the small schema. In monasticism, Lyubov received the name Judith, in honor of the Old Testament righteous woman Judith of Bethulia.

The newly tonsured nun carries her obedience in the monastery sacristy, gold embroidery workshop, and reads in church.

In his instructive speech to the new nun, Fr. Roman informed "As the Old Testament Judith saved her people by beheading the Babylonian Holofernes, who was attacking her city, so we must figuratively cut off the head of the serpent, who tempts Eve and us." After the tonsure ceremony, the sisters congratulated the newly tonsured nun.