Last modified on Tuesday August 03, 2004 at 8:14 PM EDT
When in the twenties she entered the Catholic Sheepfold, Helene Iswolsky was freed into the fullness of her Russian identity. She lived, breathed, ate, fed, spoke, taught, diffused Russia — her language, her literature, her children, her liturgy, her spirituality.
For Helene, a supreme joy was her visit to Russia in the sixties. "I found my people unchanged", she confided with tears, "and in the streets of Moscow and Leningrad, I looked at my people in the eyes… I knew them, and they knew me."
Intense communication, wordless recognition, such as, perhaps, only rigorous silence can bring forth!