Background

Sofya Sergeevna was born into the family of the nobles, the daughter of a member of the IIIrd and IVth State Duma Sergei Iliodorovich Shildovsky. As a child, she lived on the father’s estate the Wolf Farm in Biryuchsky District (now Volokonovsky District, Belgorod Region, Russia).

Education

Since 1920, she was in exile. She lived in Estonia, Germany, France, USA. Sofya Sergeevna studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Berlin (1922-1924). She used to take part in religious and philosophical meetings which were attended by N.A. Berdyaev, C.L. Franca, I.A. Ilyin.

Career

Since 1924 Sofya Sergeevna lived in France. She taught English at school and worked as a translator. From 1926 to 1927 Kulomzina studied the methods of working with children and young people at Columbia University (New York, USA).

In France, she was one of the leading figures of the Russian Student Christian Movement, where she was engaged in the religious education of Russian youth (1927-1934). She worked at the publishing house YMCA-Press (1945-1948).

In 1948, Sofya moved to the United States and served in the Tolstoy Foundation in New York. In the USA she continued her pedagogical activities, founded the Commission on Orthodox Education, which coordinated educational activities among Orthodox communities of various ethnic origins. She is the author of the books: "God is with us", "History of the Orthodox Church", "Church and our children" and others.

Kulomzina taught a course of religious pedagogy at the St. Vladimir Orthodox Academy (Crestwood, New York; 1954-1974).

Since 1970, she repeatedly traveled to the USSR, later on to Russia. In the 1990s, Sofya Sergeevna was appointed the president of the "Religious Books for Russia" Association.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Священная история в рассказах для детей

    (Sacred History in Stories for Children)

    1964

Connections

Spouse:

Nikita Yakovlevich Kulomzin