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'''Sr. Vassa (Larin), Ph.D.''', also known as '''Nun Vassa''' or '''Sister Vassa''' (secular name '''Barbara Larin''' or '''Varavara Georgievna Larina''', {{lang-ru|Варвара Георгевна Ларина}}; b. December 11, 1970 in , Nyack, New York, United States<ref>[http://www.dosconferences.com/?speaker=sr-vassa-larin SrVassaCofee Sr. Vassa Larin]</ref>) is a tonsured [[Monastic Ranks|rassaphor]] nun of the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] (ROCOR). Her podcasts, Coffee with Sr. Vassa, which have been produced since 2013, have a worldwide following, and have made her one of the most well-known monastics in the Orthodox Church. She is also an academic, having earned her doctorate in Orthodox Theology from [[:w:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich|Ludwig Maximilian-University]] in Munich. She is an expert in the field of Byzantine Liturgy, and serves as a member of the Commission on Canon Law and the Commission on Liturgy and Church Art of the Interconciliar Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Besides teaching, she is a writer of many articles and papers, has developed state-approved religious curriculum for the Orthodox Church, and is a sought-after Orthodox speaker for both academic and popular groups. She currently (2016) resides in Vienna, Austria. ==Early Life==
== Biography ==
Born Barbara (Varvara) Larin in Nyack, New York, Sr. Vassa was the third daughter of Fr. George Larin, rector of [[Holy Virgin Protection Church (Nyack, New York|Holy Virgin Protection Church in Nyack, New York]]. She graduated from high school in 1987, at the age of 16, and continued her studies at Bryn Mawr College.
In late 1989, Sr. Vassa left college to join the [[Lesna Convent of the Most-Holy Mother of God (Provence)|Lesna Convent of the Most-Holy Mother of God in Provence, France]] (which was at that time a ROCOR monastery) , to become a nun. On [[March 9]], 1998, she became a tonsured (rassaphor) nun. After ten years in France, she spent two years at a convent in Jerusalem. At some point, she became part of the monastic community in Munich, which was headed by Archbishop [[Mark (Arndt) of Berlin]]. ROCOR won the right in Bavaria that Orthodox children in the Bavarian school system should be able to receive Orthodox religious education in 1956, however, access to this education has been an ongoing problem, in part due to a lack of qualified religious educators. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich has an Orthodox Institute as part of its offerings, and so in the early 2000s, Archbishop Mark encouraged several monastics from the Munich area - including Sr. Vassa - to take classes there in order to become qualified teachers for Orthodox religious education. Sr. Vassa excelled there, earning a Master's in Theology in 2006. Although she had originally intended to write her doctoral thesis on Canon Law, she was convinced by a Fr. Robert Taft - a Jesuit Archimandrite, and world-renowned expert on the Byzantine Liturgy - that because she had already done some academic work related to Byzantine services, that she ought to continue on in that vein, and if she decided to do so, he would help her with her dissertation and with financing her studies. With the blessing of Archbishop Mark, this is the path she took, receiving a Ph.D. summa cum laude in 2009.