Repose and burial of the Abbess of the Mount of Olives Convent of the Ascension of the Lord, Abbess Moisseia (Bubnova)

After receiving Holy Communion, on the morning of March 8, Mother Abbess Mooisseia (Bubnova) calmly reposed in the Lord. Mother Moisseia had been sick for several weeks from the Covid 19 virus and was hospitalized at Maqasett Hospital, not far from the monastery. She peacefully died there.

In the morning, the body was brought to the monastery where it was clothed by the sisters in her monastic robes. The coffin with the body lay in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord where the sisters read the Psalter over the deceased. The next day on the feast of the Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist, Liturgy was served in the chapel of St. John the Baptist. Immediately after the Liturgy, the sisters and the clergy went to the main church of the monastery, where they served the monastic funeral service over the body of the newly departed abbess. The head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), Archimandrite Vasily (Druzhinets), Archimandrite Innokenty (Sereda), Abbot Iona (Galishnikov) and Deacon Vyacheslav Batalsky served. The current abbess of the convent, Mother Barbara (Novikova) prayed with the sisterhood. After the funeral, they carried out the body while singing the stichera of St. John Damascene “What living sweetness”.