in 2006-2008 she worked as the graduate assistant of the renowned expert on byzantine liturgy, professor robert f. taft, s.j., at the pontifical oriental institute in rome. taft directed sr. vassa’s doctoral dissertation on the byzantine hierarchal liturgy, which she defended "summa cum laude" at the orthodox institute of the ludwig maximilian university of munich in december 2008. larin’s dissertation, "the byzantine hierarchal divine liturgy in arsenij suxanov’s proskinitarij", was published in 2010 as volume 286 of the academic series "orientalia christiana analecta".