July 1998 – Richard Wurmbrand Singing Ave Maria

Fr Damascene, Fr Gerasim, and Mother Nina visit Pastor Wurmbrand
in the nursing home, in July 1998 (source HERE)

I have found today on Federica Matthew-Green blog the following historical recording with Richard Wurmbrand singing the Hebrew version of Ave Maria that he composed.

You could listen to this recording at the link below.

Richard Wurmbrand – Ave Maria

In this recording, Federica, who is a very lucid person, and does not buy into the nationalistic passions that dominate so many Romanian Orthodox believers, tries to dispel the false rumour that Wurmbrand might have secretly been converted to Orthodoxy before his death. This is clearly very unlikely for all of us who knew him. This is just not imaginable with the kind of person Richard was.

Here is how this song was composed, according to Fr. George Calciu-Dumitreasa, who was in a communist prison with Rev. Richard Wurmbrand and remained his friend all his life (source, HERE):

I was in prison with different people: Orthodox, Catholic, Romanian, Hungarian, German, etc. And I noticed that the Hymn to the Mother of God existed in all the languages, except Hebrew. And I decided to compose this hymn in Hebrew, because Mary is a Jew and Hebrew was her language.

You ca find in the PDF document below the story of how this recording was made.

Hieromonk Damascene – Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. Finishing the Race

* * *

Frederica Mathewes-Green is a wide-ranging author, whose work has appeared in such diverse publications as the Washington Post, Christianity Today, Smithsonian, the Los Angeles Times, First Things, Books & Culture, Sojourners, Touchstone, and the Wall Street Journal. She has been a regular commentator for National Public Radio (NPR), on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, a commentator on the Hallmark TV network, a columnist for the Religion News Service, Beliefnet.com, and Christianity Today, wrote regular book reviews for the Los Angeles Times, movie reviews for National Review Online and Christianity Today Movies, recorded a podcast for Ancient Faith Radio, and was a consultant for Veggie Tales.

She has published 9 books, including The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God (Paraclete, 2009), Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy (HarperCollins, 1997) and The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation (Paraclete, 2001). Her essays were selected for Best Christian Writing in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006, and Best Spiritual Writing in 1998 and 2007. She has published over 700 essays.

She has also appeared as a speaker over 500 times, at places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Wellesley, Cornell, Calvin, Baylor, and Westmont; at the Smithsonian Institute, the Aspen Institute, Washington National Cathedral, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, the American Academy of Religion, the Veritas Forum, the Family Research Council, and the National Right to Life Committee.

She has been interviewed almost 700 times, on venues including PrimeTime Live, the Diane Rehm Show, the 700 Club, NPR, PBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News, and by Time, Newsweek, the New Republic, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Times.

She lives with her husband, the Rev. Gregory Mathewes-Green, in Baltimore, MD, where he is pastor and she is “Khouria” (“Mother”) of the parish they founded, Holy Cross Orthodox Church. Their three children grew up and got married, and they now have eleven grandchildren. Since 1997, Frederica has been recording books for the blind with the Radio Reading Network of Maryland.

Read more about her HERE.

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