March 31: Mother Maria of Paris

Maria Skobtsova, known as Mother Maria of Paris, who saved numerous Jews in Nazi-occupied Paris, died in the Ravensbruck concentration camp on this date in 1945. Skobtsova (born Elizaveta Pilenko) was a nun in the Eastern Orthodox Church who came from Russian aristocracy. Before taking her vows in 1932, she was a Social Revolutionary, a poet, twice married, and a mother. Living in a private house as a nun in Paris, she arranged for many Jews to receive baptismal certificates, provided shelter to them, and helped many flee the country. In particular, she organized Paris garbage collectors to hide Jewish children in trash cans and bring them to safe havens outside the city. Skobtsova is recognized as a righteous gentile by Israel’s Yad Vashem and was canonized as a saint by the Orthodox Church in 2004.

“Two triangles, a star,
The shield of King David, our forefather.
This is election, not offense.
The great path and not an evil.
Once more in a term fulfilled,
Once more roars the trumpet of the end;
And the fate of a great people
Once more is by the prophet proclaimed.
Thou art persecuted again, O Israel,
But what can human malice mean to thee,
who have heard the thunder from Sinai?” —Maria Skobtsova, 1942