The life of a princess isn’t all glamor, handsome princes, and beautiful clothes. It’s also devotion to duty, sacrifice for your people, and a lot of just plain hard work. And if your country happens to suffer two world wars and a communist takeover in your lifetime, it means danger and suffering, exile and heartache as well. Princess Ileana of Romania endured all this and more. But her deeply rooted Orthodox faith saw her through it all, and eventually led her in her later years to the peaceful repose of monasticism. But that life included sacrifice and hard work as well, because as Mother Alexandra she was called to build the first English-language Orthodox women’s monastery in the United States-the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. Princess Ileana’s story is a thrilling tale of love and loss, danger and rescue, sacrifice and reward. Her inspiring life stands as a beacon of faith and holiness for young women of all times and nations to follow.

She lives in fear—of the two-legs, of the noisy, massive trains that scream in and out of the station, of cats and rats and dogs and the dark of the tunnels. She lives in the subway, where the hard shoes kick her ribs, where shrill voices beat her ears, where she subsists on the garbage of the humans. But the little cat walks alone.

Until she meets Candlewax, a street kid exiled from the subway tunnels, and Katherine, a student photographer who loves her on sight. From these two she learns that trust can banish fear and love provides a home wherever you are.

“Capture[s] realistically…this desire to be accepted. Stylistically, this is a really interesting, compelling book.” (CBC Radio One – All Points West 2008-10-23)

The road to sainthood takes a lifetime to travel. . . . Late in the fourth century, Christians are labeled enemies of the Roman Empire–hounded, arrested, tortured, and executed. Macrina and her husband Basil, once-wealthy Christians, flee with their small son to the mountainous forests south of the Black Sea. There, Macrina embarks on a seven-year journey of unexpected tests and trials that will take her through a harsh and hungry wilderness pilgrimage, only to plunge her into poverty and danger on the streets of Neocaesarea. So begins Macrina’s adventure in faith, as she undertakes the process of becoming one of the most influential women in sacred history, the mother and grandmother of saints. Readers of all ages will be fascinated by the story of St. Macrina the Elder, who had a profound influence on her grandchildren, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Macrina the Younger. She is truly a great confessor of the Orthodox Christian faith.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Born in Toronto, Canada, Bev is a young adult writer with a degree in psychology. From 1990 until 2000 she published in small, local magazines, and had one short story accepted – David’s Gargoyles. 

In 2003, Bev and her husband became Orthodox Christians. In 2004, Keeper of the Light was accepted for publication by Conciliar Press. Royal Monastic followed in 2008 as did Feral, from Orca Book Publishers.

A lover of animals, especially cats, Bev also enjoys playing Myst-type games, board games, walking, gardening and bird-watching.