Mother Superior
The Mother Superior of Stauropegic Intercession convent hegumeness Feofaniya.
The Mother Superior Feofaniya (Miskina Olga Dmitriyevna) was born on July 2, 1965 in а large religious family. Her parents had 9 children, and all of them have connected their lives with service to God and people in certain ways. From early ages, she attended services at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, where she later studied to become a Regent.
The future abbess began her monastic path in 1987 in Koretsky convent. Here novice Olga was assigned a work at the garden, cowshed, she painted roofs and domes, and then she began to help sew the episcopal vestments. In 1988 the novice Olga was taken away to Moscow, to help at Patriarchy during the celebrations devoted to the 1000 anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. She was a house-keeper, she was responsible for provision, sewed monastic robes, cleaned. On November 04, 1990 on the holiday of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God she has been admit to the veil with leaving of a former name.
In the autumn of 1992, by blessing of the Most Saint Patriarch Alexy II, according to the application, the nun Olga has been sent to newly opened Sacred and Troitsk Serafimo-Diveevsky convent. She loved Reverend Seraphim of Sarov very much. At Diveevo she was assigned a work of the storekeeper of church utensils, and furniture, she sewed, read and sang on a choir. She lived in Mother Superior building with hegumenes Sergiya. The nun Olga went to get provision, she was responsible for buying all necessary for monastery restoration.
On the 22 th of February 1995 she was appointed to be the mother superior of the Pokrovsky Convent of Moscow by the decree of the Most Saint Patriarch Alexy II. On April 14, 1995 she has been made a nun by the Most Saint Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II in the Cross temple of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God of the Moscow Patriarchy with a name Feofaniya in honor of the blessed queen Feofania .
By God’s Providence, Mother Feofania was able to revive the ancient Moscow monastery in unprecedented beauty from scratch.
On the 4 th of April 1998 his Holiness Patriarch Alexy II elevated nun Feofania to the rank of abbess "in view of the diligent efforts to revive monastic life in the convent, liberate the churches and buildings of the monastery from their former tenants and restore them". (More than 40 organizations were located in the temples and other buildings of the monastery by 1995, but by May 1998, only 3 tenants remained in the monastery – state institutions).
20 years after this event, the Pokrovsky Convent was completely transformed: the churches, the Abbot's, sister's, and household buildings, walls, and towers were restored, and a vast territory was landscaped. A Convent hotel and a chapel with a prayer house were restored on this historical site. There are 3 monastic farmsteads in Moscow and in Moscow region. The Convent has a children's shelter and an Orthodox gymnasium.
In total, during the years of abbess Mother Feofania revived 8 churches (including 18 thrones), restored and rebuilt more than 50 buildings, completely landscaped the territory of more than 20 hectares, where she planted more than 1,500 trees and shrubs with her own hands.
There are 60 sisters in the Pokrovskaya monastery, and 40 girls are brought up in a monastery orphanage. There are 100 children in the Orthodox gymnasium.
The Pokrovsky Convent is one of the most visited monasteries in Russian capital today. Several thousand pilgrims come to worship the relics of the blessed Matronushka of Moscow every day, and on holidays – tens of thousands. In the temples of the Convent and its farmsteads, Church Sacraments are performed. During the year, more than 1,500 people receive Holy Baptism here, and many couples get married.
