With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Irina Itina, former adjunct Seminary librarian, longtime Three Hierarchs Chapel member, and alumna. She fell asleep in the Lord peacefully Sunday morning, July 12, 2020, in Rockland County, NY.
Irina was born in 1927 in Ljubljana (in the former Yugoslavia) and was raised in Belgrade in a Russian émigré family. She studied in a Serbo-Russian gymnasium in Belgrade, where her teacher was Fr. Georges Florovsky, and later at the University of Munich and Columbia University. She also took classes at St. Vladimir's Seminary in the 1980s and was a spiritual daughter of Fr. Thomas Hopko for over thirty years until his repose.
Irina eventually moved to Yonkers, NY, where she lived with her widowed mother, and worked at the New York Public Library (Russian and German departments). After her retirement, she began volunteering at St. Vladimir’s Seminary’s Father Georges Florovsky Library and served there from the 1980s until the early 2000s.
For the past four years, Irina lived within the loving family of two other spiritual children of Fr. Thomas.
The funeral and burial services for Irina will be held Wednesday, July 15, at 10 a.m at Novo-Diveevo Convent and Cemetery, 100 Smith Rd, Nanuet, NY 10954. Attendees may be asked to stay outside the church building if the maximum limit of people inside, 56, has already been reached. Speakers, however, will be placed outside for those not allowed to enter. There is no limit on the number of people going to the graveside, but individuals must observe safety guidelines and social distancing.
May the memory of Irina be eternal!
