and her cousin Vera at right)
One of the outstanding personalities in the early years of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church, Mother Catherine (Anna Ivanovna) Abrikosova (1892—1936) was truly a martyr and confessor of the faith.
A learned, married woman of the class of the Russian intelligentsia, she and her husband, Vladimir, having spent their early years in ‘free thinking,’ found their way to the Way, the Truth, and the Life, while living for a period in Western Europe. In her discovery of God and the development of her faith, she was greatly influenced by the mystical Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena; in living out the rest of her life, she appeared to live out the phrase that most moved her, which she found in the prologue of that work: “to know and follow the truth more manfully.”
Subsequently, she and Vladimir took private vows of permanent continence within marriage and each entered the religious life: Vladimir as a priest of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church and Catherine as the leader of a community of women following the Dominican tertiary rule, but praying and living according to the Russian liturgical and spiritual traditions of the Byzantine rite. Mother Catherine's community began an active intellectual apostolate, teaching the young various subjects at various levels and trying to provide catechesis and to develop a library for the use of their Moscow parish. With the coming of communist rule, she was twice arrested and died in prison of cancer contracted during her captivity.
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(photo of the young Anna to left, and her cousin Vera at right) |
Fr. Vladimir Abrikosov |
Those interested in a more detailed study of the life of Mother Catherine we direct to the excellent article by Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P., Ekaterina Sienskaya Abrikosova (1892-1936): A Dominican Uniate Foundress in the Old Russia", 72 New Blackfriars 164–172 (January 1991) and the sources cited therein. Below we quote a few salient passages from Fr. Nichols' article which capture the deep devotion and personality of this remarkable Russian Byzantine Catholic nun, and reflect her observations concerning the Russian apostolate which retain their relevance today.
