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OUR
HERITAGE |
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Valeria
K. Hoecke -- The ÒKassiaÓ of the Russian Diaspora Valeria Konstantinovna
Hoecke was one of the very few women of recent centuries who undertook
to compose liturgical hymns. The services written by her have been
approved for liturgical use by the Synod of Bishops of the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Valeria Konstantinovna
was born to the family of the director of the insurance company
ÒRossiaÓ for the whole of the Caucasus and the Trans-caucasian region.
The family was very religious but not very churchly. They brought
their daughter to church for especially important feast days, though
for the most part not to parish churches, but to so-called house
chapels. From childhood
she began to study foreign languages. When she was five years old,
the family hired a resident French-speaking governess, and two years
later added a German-speaking governess. From the time she was eleven,
an English-woman came to give her lessons. Her musical education
was begun at a similarly early age. In Tiflis, where the family
moved because of her father’s employment, she began to take lessons,
first from the famous pianist L.N. Pyshnov, and later from the renowned
A. K. Borovsky. Valeria Konstantinovna turned out to be a very talented
pupil, and they foretold for her a brilliant musical career. When she was
fourteen years old, instructors in catechism began to come to her
home. One of them was Fr. Vladimir Egorov, who was later tortured
and drowned in the sea by the Bolsheviks. He showed his student
great attention, teaching her to read the lives of the saints and
Church literature in general. Fr. Vladimir taught in such an ardent
and attractive way that even Valeria Konstantinovna’s father began
to take an interest in the lessons and asked permission to sit in
on them. The spirit of homiletic zeal burned within the young girl,
and she would fearlessly debate with the Bolsheviks after they had
captured Tiflis and had commandeered the Gubanovs’ house. With the help
of the Italian consul and other friends, the family managed to reach
Constantinople through Batum, and from there ultimately settled
in Belgrade, where Valeria Konstantinovna’s father managed to obtain
an excellent position with an insurance company which had been an
affiliate of Rossia. In Belgrade,
Valeria Konstantinovna entered the School of Theology, and in 1936,
married Pavel Aleksandrovich Hoecke, a German who had converted
to Orthodoxy and later became a priest in Germany. At the end of
the War, Fr. Pavel was arrested by the Communists and was never
returned to his family. The young matushka was left with an ailing
mother and three small children to take care of. Because the Bolsheviks
had begun to summon her often for interrogation, she took steps
to move to the western part of Berlin. During the bombardment of
Berlin, the family had lost nearly all its possessions, including
rare books, as well as a number of services she had already composed.
Fortunately, draft copies were discovered in another place, so they
were not lost forever. From Berlin they managed to move to Munich,
where Valeria Konstantinovna took up work for various American organizations.
The family lived in several different refugee camps until they moved
to Jerusalem at the invitation of Abbess Maria of Gethsemane Convent.
By this time, the children had grown up and care had to be taken
for their university education. The family therefore moved to Beirut,
where Valeria Konstantinovna taught foreign languages in two different
schools. Meanwhile, they managed to obtain visas for America, and
in September of 1958, they all moved to New York. From childhood,
Valeria Konstantinovna loved to write. Later, as a young lady, she
began to write poetry--though not religious poems, for she considered
that the latter were too sugary. But her poetic aspirations and
her veneration for various saints moved her to undertake the composition
of liturgical services. Among the full opus of the services composed
by Valeria Konstantinovna that written for the wonderworking Kursk-Root
Icon of the Mother of God is particularly noteworthy. This service
was personally reviewed by His Beatitude, the late Metropolitan
Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who was very pleased with it and recommended
only a very few minor adjustments. Whose suggestion it was to compose
the service for the Kursk-Root Icon it is difficult to say, but
apparently Archbishop Feofan of Kursk and Oboyan was particularly
insistent that one be written. The services
composed by Valeria Konstantinovna were all without fail approved
by the Synod of Bishops for liturgical use, and were always deemed
worthy of the high praise of Metropolitans Anthony (Khrapovitsky),
Anastassy (Gribanovsky) and Philaret (Voznesensky). (Valeria Konstantinovna
also composed services to the heavenly patrons of the latter two
hierarchs.) A photograph
survives with the inscription ÒTo Mistress Kassia.Ó This is how
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Antony inscribed the photo of himself
which he presented to Valeria Konstantinovna as a gift. Valeria Konstantinovna
reposed at home, in a suburb of New York, on 28 March 1986. They
found her kneeling in prayer before her icon corner (she had about
200 icons in her room!). She was buried in the cemetery of Holy
Trinity Monastery, in Jordanville, New York. Full Services: - The Appearance
of the Wonderworking Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God (approved
in Yugoslavia with the blessing of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Anthony) For the Euchologion
(Trebnik) - Rite for
the Blessing of a Journey by Air - Prayer for
the Sanctification of a Vehicle Adapted from an obituary which appeared in Church Life and from The Dictionary of Russian Women Writers |