On Wednesday June 6/19 2013, Nina Seco reposed in the Lord. She had been tonsured into the Great Schema with the name Macrina, in honor of St. Macrina the sister of St. Basil the Great.
Raised as an atheist by her parents, Mother Macrina embraced Orthodoxy in her youth with a fervor that few can match. She was in no small part responsible for the printing of the first comprehensive prayer book in English, containing for the first time all the essential prayers used by the Orthodox layman in the Russian practice. She supplied material for the early numbers of Orthodox Life, and helped Fr. Anthony Grabbe when he was starting St. Sergius High School in NYC.
She was co-founder, together with Mother Matrona, of Holy Nativity Convent. Mother Matrona recalled that when she and Mother Macrina were touring the monasteries and holy places of the Orthodox homelands, Mother was always studying, trying to learn anything that would be of use in the founding and running of a convent. Though she could not stay in the monastery herself, her work and sacrifices in the early days made it possible for others to build on what she had helped start. And her reward here was to receive the tonsure and the name of the saint whom she dearly loved.
For the last thirty plus years Mother has been a help and support to the many projects undertaken by Fr. Neketas Palassis and the parish of St. Nectarius in Seattle WA. She touched so many lives for good and she will be missed by many people around the world.
May her memory be eternal and her rest with the saints.
