Narrative Summary
Interview with Mother Sergia by Sarah Riccardi
“A little bit of my vanity is showing through,” Mother Sergia said as she fixed her long,
dark monastic robe. Vain is hardly what I would call Mother Sergia, abbess of the Presentation
of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Monastery in Missouri. Mother Sergia is a kind, warm,
unpretentious scholar who has devoted her life to one of the pillars of her church: monasticism.
She led me into an ornate, wood-paneled chapel where we would conduct our interview. After
venerating icons of Christ, the Theotokos, and several of the saints, we sat down to discuss her
religious life thus far.
Mother Sergia was born Mary Renner in Ohio in the 1940s. Her mother was a
particularly religious Methodist, and as a result, Mother Sergia was a devout Methodist. Because
of her faith, Mother Sergia went to a Methodist college—Mount Union College. During her
freshman year, she took a basic religion course that introduced her to form criticism. She became
disillusioned with the denomination and even angry at the church. It took her several years
before she could even step foot in a church again. During her senior year at Mount Union, she
was asked by the school to join the American University Study Travel Seminar in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union. It was during her trip to Moscow that she encountered the
persecution of Orthodox Christians, and it was an experience that she never forgot. She believes
that through his prayers and intercession in heaven, Saint Sergius of Radonezh was particularly
instrumental in her conversion to Orthodoxy. She was drawn to the Orthodox Church by the
beauty of their worship, the antiquity of their faith, and especially their connection to the saints.
Mother Sergia spent several years in Europe for graduate studies, first in Paris, and then
in Vienna. While in Vienna working on her master’s degree, she began attending an Orthodox
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Church. She always lamented that she had not been born in Russia so she could have grown up
in the church. When Mother Sergia returned to the United States for her doctoral studies at
Georgetown University, she again found an Orthodox Church to attend.
Finally, she made a trip home to Ohio to tell her Mother that she was going to convert to
Orthodoxy. Her mother, much to her surprise, was discontented with Protestantism and
eventually converted to Orthodoxy as well. While on her trip to Ohio, Mother Sergia took a side
trip to Pennsylvania to take part in an Orthodox Church conference. It was there that she met
Mother Alexandra, formally known as Princess Ileana of Romania, who founded a monastery in
the United States. Mother Sergia knew then that she would ultimately be a nun; it took her fewer
than five years.
Eventually, she founded the Presentation of the Virgin Mary Monastery on paper, but she
waited ten years until God called her to Missouri and Archbishop Job approved the construction
of the monastery on donated land. In the late 2000s, Mother Sergia was tonsured to the rank of
Little Schema, named for her favorite saint, Saint Sergius. That same weekend, she was made the
abbess of the monastery by Archbishop Job, the archbishop of Chicago and the greater Midwest.
Mother Sergia, along with Sister Alexandra, holds seven daily services and special festal
services. Mother Sergia, Sister Alexandra, and Mother Sergia’s mother live at the monastery.
Mother Sergia feels blessed to be in the Ozarks and is grateful for the community. Her vision is
to expand the monastery to eventually house twelve nuns, and have enough rooms for pilgrims
and visiting clergy as well.
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Religious Lives of Ozarks Women