Silent as a Stone: Mother Maria of Paris and the Trash Can Rescue

Silent as a Stone memorializes the life of Mother Maria Skobtsova, an unconventional nun who aided the persecuted Jewish people in occupied France during WWII.

Confronting the horror of Nazi brutality, Mother Maria devised an ingenious plan to save Jewish children destined for extermination camps: Paris garbage collectors, upon her urging, hid the children in trash cans and whisked them to safe havens outside the city.

Mother Maria, for her selfless rescue activities, perished in a gas chamber in Ravensbrück camp in Germany in 1945. Today, she is among the "righteous gentiles" honored in Israel and a canonized saint in the Orthodox Christian Church.

"In the spirit of Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey and Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt, Silent as a Stone conveys the hope and heartbreak of life in a bite-size form that children can manage. Stunningly illustrated and tenderly told, Silent as a Stone tells the story of three unforgettable lives and the countless lives they touched. Mother Maria, Yuri, and Fr Dimitri serve as examples to us all-and especially to our children-who must find the path of love through our broken world." -Jenny Schroedel, author of The Blackbird's Nest: Saint Kevin of Ireland and The Everything Saints Book

"Silent as a Stone is an incredible resource for the Orthodox Christian community to learn about the heroic and courageous deeds of Mother Maria. Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press should be commended for bringing this story to light and honoring Mother Maria with such a beautifully illustrated and inspiring book." -Rachel Kamin, Director, Temple Israel Libraries & Media Center

"Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood face to face with the problems of this century." +Metropolitan Anthony BloomForest & Pancheshnaya, Jim Forest