Saint Elizabeth Skete is a womens monastic community under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in the Diocese of Eastern America and New York. The skete was founded by the late Metropolitan Laurus (+ 2008) in 1987.
Following the traditional monastic way, the nuns share a common life of work and prayer, a life based upon simple obedience to the commandments of Christ and Holy Scriptures. To support themselves the nuns sew, make hand-dipped beeswax candles, manufacture church incense, produce original hand-painted icons, make prayer ropes, natural skin creams and blend herbal teas. In the summer they tend their flower and vegetable gardens.
Every day starts with midnight office in the chapel and ends again with prayer in the chapel, which all the sisters attend.
“Be closer to each other, be as one single soul, wholly devoted to our Lord, and say, as did Saint John Chrysostom: Glory to God for everything.... You must draw closer to God. The Lord says, My son, give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe My ways… {If you do this} then you can be sure that you have given everything to God because you have given Him your heart, and that means your very self.
(From a letter of St. Elizabeth in exile to her monastic sisters, 1918)
