Around this time she began to feel that something was lacking in her life, and she began to explore and read up on the history of religion and religious experience itself. This eventally lead her to join the Anglican Church, the beginning of a journey that eventually brought her to the Orthodox Church. Like many English people of her generation, she came to Orthodoxy through the preaching of Met. Anthony Bloom of the Moscow Patriarchate, and became a member of his parish in London. In time, however, she felt the need for a less vague, less ecumenical and more traditional teaching, and joined the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, being baptised with the name of Paraskeva. Her daughters followed in her footsteps, and m. Pelagia often spoke of the profound joy of knowing that they, as well as all her grandchildren, were baptised Orthodox Christians. As her knowledge of the faith and her spiritual life deepened, she began to search for a more single-minded and dedicated way of life, and started to think about monasticism. Her children were grown and settled, while her marriage had ended, to a large degree because of her religious conversion. One evening a late night BBC broadcast of the life of St. Pelagia the Harlot brought her to tears, and this was the turning point after which she begged her spiritual father for a blessing to enter a monastery. Originally she hoped to enter the Holy Nativity Convent in Boston, the only English speaking womens' monastic community within the Church Abroad at that time, but Boston refused to accept a 62 year old novice. She knew of no significant difference between the various Russian-speaking communities, and resorted to the traditional method of drawing lots, that God's will might be revealed. Her heart fell when the Lesna Monastery came up, as she had visited there earlier and hadn't liked it at all. But early in her Orthodox journey she had grasped the spiritual importance of obedience. So, she arrived at Lesna in 1979 determined to bear it no matter what.

The Lesna Monastery of the 1970s and 80s was a typical 19th century Russian religious community, or rather, what could be preserved of that over many years of revolution, persecution and wandering. Only Russian was spoken, only Slavonic used in the divine services, and though the convent preserved many fine traditions of pre-revolutionary Russia, it was all very much "word of mouth", with little, if any, system or structure in place, especially when it came to dealing with a newcomer convert from another culture. Sr. Paraskeva was not, to put it mildly, met with open arms, and for a long, long time felt very much an outsider, accepted neither by the "oldtimers" of the Russian emmigration or the "new Russians" that were just starting to get out of the Soviet Union in those years. There were bright moments: she found a true spiritual mother and guide in Abbess Magdalina (Grabbe), and formed a lasting friendship with her successor, Abbess Athanasia (Guttenberger), and soon enough other English speaking novices began to enter Lesna. She came to know and love the complicated monastery services. There were visits from family and friends. She also clung to the hope that another English-speaking monastic community for women would eventually be founded within the Church Abroad and that she would be blessed to transfer there. Above all, there was the consolation of having completely renounced her own will and feeling that she was where the Lord meant her to be. But only a person with a truly profound and sincere desire for monastic life could have borne with the hardships of those early years. Experiencing so many different countries and cultures during her years abroad helped her cope with the unfathomable Russians, as did her great intelligence, wit, sense of irony and unforgettable, typically British sense of humor. Never very strong physically, Sr. Paraskeva nevertheless shared in the work of the monastery to the extent that she was able, cleaning the church, baking prosphora, driving, and much more. At the very start she set many rules for herself and clung to them unfailingly with a true ascetic purpose. She was always present at the serivces and participated in the choir, she was always there for meals in the refectory, always prompt and cheerful at her tasks. She never, ever complained at the multitude of minor hardships that make up monastery life: interrupted hours of sleep, noisy neighbors, unfamiliar food, annoying habits, seemingly unreasonable schedules. She was scrupulously obedient. Her separation from the world was complete. She struggled to limit herself in everything and to free herself of all superfluous posessions and would not permit herself any secular reading or music. She always did her best to be kind and loving to all the sisters and laughed off what she couldn't change, keeping focused on what was truly important without distractions.

Such fervor didn't go unoticed; Abbess Magdalina quickly came to love and value Sr. Paraskeva greatly. In English-speaking circles she soon became known for a spiritual wisdom far beyond her few monastic years. The Lesna sisters called her "nasha anglichanka" (our Englishwoman) and she finally found a real place for herself in the community. Sr. Paraskeva was tonsured a rassaphore nun in 1981, and to the small schema in 1984, with the name of Pelagia, after the saintly monastic that had originally inspired her. M. Pelagia began to assist M. Athanasia in the administrative work of the monastery, and Matushka Abbess Magdalina died peacefully in 1987, feeling that she was leaving the monastey in their capable hands. In 1990 Archbishop Anthony of Geneva officially appointed her as Abbess Athanasia's assistant, bestowing a pectoral cross upon her, and the title of "namestnitsa" (prioress).

M. Pelagia fell gravely ill in 1993 and was never really able to return to a fully active life in the monastery. Abbess Athanasia retired that year, and many other changes came: there was a new abbess and new clergy, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and the monastery was suddenly full of novices from the former Soviet bloc, the information revolution and computer technology came to Lesna. No longer part of the monastery's administration, M. Pelagia was able to spend many hours with the monastery's novices, younger sisters, and english-speaking pilgrims, sharing her encyclopedic knowledge of the saints' lives and her special love for the saints of her native British Isles, and dispensing the wisdom that had been gained through her earlier struggles, trials and tribulations. She witnessed how the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, so long a bastion of traditional Orthodoxy, began to crack and crumble, as talk of reunification with the Moscow Patriarchate began. M. Pelagia remained true to her principles and practices, and in those years, in spite of her increasing frailty, she seemed a pillar of prayer, monastic wisdom and traditional Orthodoxy to our community. Being dependent upon others did not prevent her from speaking out against compromise and false union, declaring that she would be bound by her conscience to leave Lesna, should the monastery submit to the Moscow Patriarchate. It was a great joy and relief to her when the Lesna Monastery decided to join the branch of the Catacomb Church under Archbishop Tikhon.

A visit to the very small, very spare cell where M. Pelagia spent most of the last few years of her life recalled to mind the life of her Saint Pelagia, who lived as a recluse on the Mount of Olives in the Holy Land. Her mind remained sharp almost to the very end, but she found it increasingly difficult to concentrate, and devoted herself largely to prayer. In January she told us that she would die this year and began to prepare still more seriously. She began to partake of Holy Communion more frequently, and towards the end, almost daily. When she was able, she spoke of an increasing joy, and even when she had difficulty in speaking, we could see that she knew us and was glad of our presence.

On the morning of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, when the Church chants, "Rejoice, thou Life-bearing Cross, invincible victory of piety, door to paradise...", M. Pelagia received Holy Communion for the last time. By the afternoon it became apparent that this would be her last day, and we gathered with Matushka Macrina and Fr. Evfimy to chant the Canon for the Departure of the Soul. M. Pelagia left us soon after. The 14/27th of September is also the day of the Appearance of the Lesna Icon, and we believe that the Most Holy Mother of God chose this day to call her handmaiden, who had served her so faithfully here at Lesna, to a new life, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting.