Abbess Maria with Abbess Aemiliane of St. Nina’s.
A big part of why we got into Ugandan coffee is Mother Maria, Abbess of St. Mary of Egypt Monastery, the first Orthodox monastery in Uganda. Our own Monastery's friend and fellow roaster Eija Pehu met Mother Maria on a research mission to Africa and made the connection. With her help and God's blessing, Mother Maria came to stay with us at St. Nina's for three months in the summer of 2015, establishing an ever-deepening connection between our Monasteries as we grow in Christ together.
Mother Maria with friend of St. Nina’s Lillian at St. Mary’s this spring. Passionfruit is one of the cash crops Mother Maria and her Sisters cultivate to help support the Monastery.
Mother Maria at St. Nina's last summer. When we were just starting to get into roasting coffee late last year, the question arose—what coffee? And we remembered that St. Mary of Egypt Monastery is located in a region where coffee has been cultivated organically for many hundreds of years. Why not start with Ugandan coffee, as a first step toward our ultimate aim of partnership with St. Mary's in sourcing coffee directly? Mother Maria and her Sisters could put their experience and expertise in the areas of community development and agriculture to good use in helping to support themselves and the fifteen orphans they care for with proceeds from coffee sales, and we at St. Nina's could offer coffee from women farmers who are neighbors of St. Mary's in a Monastery-to-Monastery exchange!
In St. Nina's kitchen. As a beginning step to this goal, we developed and perfected our own roast of Ugandan Bukonzo Nayabirongo, a fair-trade coffee imported by Crop to Cup in Brooklyn, NY. And is it ever good! Sweet, bright, and clean like a morning in the Rwenzori Mountains. Like a morning at St. Mary's or St. Nina's. Try it and tell us how you like it.
Would you like to help out Mother Maria, her Sisters, and the children they care for?
Contact us for more information about their needs and ways you can get involved.
Contact us for more information about their needs and ways you can get involved.
Mother Maria with her goddaughter Evangelia, who was baptized along with her parents and four of her brothers and sisters last spring at St. Nina's.
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