Flowers from the Mount of Olives (2013)

Mother Ksengya is 85 years old. The native Estonian has lived in Jerusalem for more than 20 years - as a nun in the Russian Orthodox convent on the Mount of Olives. Her biography is very eventful. During the War she works as a translator for the Wehrmacht, which brings her to Germany, where she is considered a “displaced person”. After a short marriage with an American, and a morphium addiction from which her second husband cures her, whom she follows to Australia. After his death, she studies biology and medicine, and takes responsibility for an adopted child. She does not leave everything worldly behind her when she enters the convent in search of the “Grand Scheme”, spiritual redemption: she considers herself cosmopolitan, and in her old age she travels to Estonia once more.

Keywords: historical treatment | asceticism | Estonians abroad | analyzing life | biography | talking about one's life | coming to terms with oneself | self-esteem | spiritual purification | church service | turtles | religious rituals | religious services | interior of a church | life in a monastery | monastery church | Christian way of life | Christianity | drying flowers | city milieu (Jerusalem) | aerial views of a city | recollecting | monastery | nun | nuns | convent | rite of consecration | harvesting olives | olive trees | praying | prayer | religion | sacral art | spirituality | relations with religion | relations with the opposite sex | taking care of plants | cooking | faith | sacred music | painful childhood memories | old woman | parent-child relationship | Russian Orthodox | Orthodoxy | Orthodox church | Orthodox customs and rites | Orthodox ministers | blessing | Easter ceremony | View all »