“Let women keep silence in the churches.” 1 Cor. 14:34 Away from the tumult and noise of this world, in quiet monastic refuges, in deserted landscapes which evoke thoughts of eternity, women of Holy Russia worked out their salvation for a thousand years, striving to acquire first of all humility of wisdom. The spiritual fragrance of this key virtue in Patristic Orthodoxy, that of humility of wisdom, which is the joining together of humility and wisdom, has always been very close to true Orthodox women, and especially to the women Saints. Behind them there always shines forth the humble image of Her Who is the first Abbess of all monastics,…