Edited by Aleksandr Filonenko, Elena Mazzola, Natalja Likvinceva, Father Aleksej Struve

“There are two different ways of living: one can walk on earth, in an absolutely legitimate and respectable way, measuring, weighing and foreseeing everything, but one can also walk on water. And in this case we can neither measure nor predict: we can only believe every time. An instant of absence of faith and immediately begin to sink”.
The exhibition tells the story and destiny of a great Orthodox saint of the twentieth century, Mother Maria (Skobcova), who accepted the challenge of emigration as a call from Christ and a gift of freedom by dedicating all her life to building the Church. Mother Mary witnesses the possibility of unity and is a sign that the Orthodox Church offers to the whole world.
The path of the exhibition starts from Mother Mary in the years of the upcoming world war, then develops into a story of an experience of emigration, whose spiritual dimension generates the recognition of poverty and freedom as gifts of God and favors the birth of an Orthodox Movement that places the following of Christ and a careful silence in front of His Presence at the center of life. This is where the monastic vocation of Mother Mary began, following the foundation of the Parisian house, a place of prayer, culture and practical help for the poor, and participation in resistance until death in a concentration camp. The exhibition concludes with the history of the canonization process that ended in 2004, when it was listed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople among the Saints as a martyr in Paris.