Alexandra Chervyakova

Saint Alexandra Chervyakova, Venerable Martyr and schemanun (1873 to 1937), was a clairvoyant elder in Moscow, shot on 13 October 1937, at Butovo. She is commemorated on 13 October, on 29 May with the new martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September with the saints of Moscow.

Born Maria Afanasievna Chervyakova, she was born in 1873 in the city of Kursk. Her father was steward of the Nobility Assembly of Kursk. It is not known in which convent she struggled and where she was tonsured, but at the beginning of the twenties, when many convents were already laid waste and their inhabitants scattered through Soviet Russia, she received the tonsure into the schema with the name Alexandra, in memory of the holy blessed prince Alexander Nevsky. By then she was already well known to the Orthodox as a pious and clairvoyant elder. In the last years of her life she suffered much from illness, almost went blind and often could recognize those who came only by voice, but she bore all sufferings with the greatest humility; for the faithful, her long patience, absence of murmuring and humble acceptance of Christ's cross were an example of Christian mind.

To the house in Moscow where she lived came many people for counsel and for prayer: monks and priests of Moscow churches, devout laity; those in other cities wrote her letters, putting questions, asking blessing and prayer. In her dwelling priests returning from exile stayed and there were always several novices, so that a small monastic community had formed and the Liturgy was served. To the questions of those who came she answered using dolls. The faithful helped her with money, but all she received she sent to many and many needy, of whom there was then no lack in dispossessed and suffering Russia.

In 1937 she was arrested, accused of counter-⁠revolutionary activity. A priest, a duty witness, who gave testimony about the schemanun Alexandra a month after her arrest, said that before her venerators the blessed one had also expressed terrorist views; thus, in a conversation about the heroes of the Soviet Union she was said to have declared that a hero would be the one who dropped a bomb from an aeroplane on the leaders during their demonstration, then everyone would breathe freely. The schemanun Alexandra was accused of having "been an active participant in a counter-⁠revolutionary church-⁠monarchist group; for counter-⁠revolutionary purposes passed herself off as a blessed one, held mass receptions of believers, expressed terrorist and fascist views, urged her venerators to secret monasticism; in her dwelling secret services and secret monastic tonsures were held". In her answers she said that she had urged people to respect their husbands more, to pray more, to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord and to teach them the word of God, and of the Soviet authorities she said that it was sent to us as a punishment. On 8 October the NKVD troika sentenced her to death. The schemanun Alexandra (Chervyakova) was shot on 13 October 1937 at the Butovo firing range near Moscow and buried in an unmarked common grave.