"I'm beginning to realize I'm too old to save the world," Ms. [Braun] said in an interview. "It will have to take its course without me. I'm just too tired," she said.

Radical Doukhobour Mary Braun is feeling so weary.

After serving two years of a six-year jail sentence for her most recent arson, the last surviving activist of the Sons of Freedom sect is starting to feel her age, 83.

She says she may be too old to carry off a decent hunger strike, too old to scandalize anyone by going naked in public, too old to continue her lifelong assault against government, war and world hunger.

"I'm beginning to realize I'm too old to save the world," Ms. Braun said in an interview. "It will have to take its course without me. I'm just too tired," she said.

Her supporters in the Kootenay region of British Columbia are currently circulating a petition to have Ms. Braun freed from jail on compassionate grounds. Earlier this month, her bid for parole was turned down.

"She is so old, so frail," Marilyn Konkin, an ardent supporters, said yesterday. "She poses no danger. She realizes she is not physically able to do a lot any more."

Ms. Braun does not encourage others to do what she does, Ms. Konkin added; she has never asked anyone else to burn down buildings. Ms. Braun was imprisoned for setting a fire in August, 2001, at Selkirk College in Castlegar, B.C., causing $150,000 in damage.

"I set the fire, and then I called the fire department," Ms. Braun said. "I appreciate what the fire department does."

In a telephone interview from the Burnaby Correctional Service for Women, Ms. Braun said she set the fire after thinking about the Doukhobour children who were taken away from their families years ago, when the families refused to send their children to government-run schools.

She said she was also thinking about the quality of education that has been given to Doukhobour children over the years in the public-school system.

At the peak of their activism in the 1950s, the Sons of Freedom Doukhobours in British Columbia demonstrated their renunciation of wealth and status by burning down their homes and disrobing as the fires flared. In defiance of secular authorities, the pacifist Christian sect that emigrated from Russia 100 years ago refused to pay taxes or send their children to public schools.

Younger Doukhobours in British Columbia have renounced the tactics of their parents and grandparents, leaving Ms. Braun as the last of their kind.

Before releasing her from jail, authorities asked her to set out what she considered appropriate restitution to the school, she said. "I told them, what about those Doukhobour children. They want a public apology, and they never had that."

Ms. Braun, who has lost count of the number of times she has been arrested for mischief, arson and public nudity, is believed to hold the record for the longest hunger strike in Canadian prisons, 107 days.

However, those days are also gone. Her supporters say her health is failing. A hunger strike earlier this month lasted only a few days.

"She was unable to do it. She feels badly about that," Ms. Konkin said.

During her two years in jail for the Selkirk College fire, Ms. Braun has received passes to leave jail temporarily for family emergencies.

She has three children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Although she returned each time without incident, the B.C. Parole Board refused to release her. Officials were not available yesterday for comment.

A member of the local school board told the parole board that Ms. Braun may still pose a threat to the community, Ms. Konkin said.

But Ms. Konkin, who has known Ms. Braun for more than 15 years, disagreed.

Ms. Braun is troubled by the damage she has caused, Ms. Konkin said.

"It's hard for her to see the college. Every time she goes by the school and sees what she had done, she regrets it."

Ms. Braun's supporters have volunteered to help rebuild the school on her behalf, Ms. Konkin added.

No one has yet responded to the offer.