Through the eyes of Saint Maria Skobtsova (1945)

“Life is like the chimneys of the crematoria. You think they incessantly belch out smoke. But when the smoke plumes start rising slightly above, they turn into bright clouds and scatter into the vast horizon. Before our souls are separated from this vain world, they follow the same eerie flight towards eternity. That dark path through suffering, before the soul is bathed in Holy light. “

This is what prisoner number 19 263 said in a crematorium in Ravensburg with eyes that dripped pus and flesh bitten by lice … Lost in the gas chambers by the Nazis, Maria Skobtsova waves hello from above, indicating virtue in modern times … irradiating peace through the holocaust.

Sofia Kioroglou is a Greek poet, writer and perennial traveller to the Holy Land and Egypt. Her recent entry to the Festival for Poetry was singled out at the Best of February and her poems have been selected in the 26 Most Commented Writers Category of Pengician. Her poems can be found online and in print in Lunaris Review, In Between Hangovers, Galleon Literary Journal, Pengician, Galway Review, Verse-Virtual, Dumas de Demain, Books’ Journal, Poetic Diversity, Every Writer, Winamop and Aenaon to name but a few. She has work forthcoming this March in Basil o’ Flaherty. She was one of the winners in the International Competition of Epok.gr this January and her work won a distinction in the Poetry Contest of Unesco Club for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Her work is mentioned in the Winningwriters Magazine this February.