![]() “Duty was the keyword of my childhood and youth,” Princess Ileana explains. Princess Ileana writes passionately, frankly, and compellingly of her country, Romania, and of a royal life intertwined with the stark and frequently brutal realities of World Wars I and II and of the Communist takeover of her country. This is not the story of a fairytale princess. Within weeks of its publication, I purchased the book and entered, entranced, into Ileana’s story. My visit coincided with the 50th year of the monastery’s founding, and with this anniversary I Live Again: A Memoir of Ileana was to be reprinted by Ancient Faith Publishing. ![]() It was there that I first learned of Princess Ileana, who in her later years took up a monastic vocation and, as Abbess Mother Alexandra, founded the first English-speaking Orthodox women’s monastery on American soil in the hills of western Pennsylvania. The beauty and serenity of the monastery, the prayerful services, and the sisters’ warm hospitality provided a needed respite after a busy Lenten season. Last spring, I visited the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration near Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. ![]()
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