Alexandra Khvorostyannikova

Holy Venerable Martyr Alexandra Khvorostyannikova, a novice, was born on 20 April 1886 in the village of Syanovo in the Serpukhov district of the Moscow province, in a devout peasant family. She reposed in the camp on 30 September 1943, after being condemned for her confession of the faith. The Russian Church honours her among the New Martyrs and Confessors.

Her father, Semyon Khvorostyannikov, served at the village church. In 1896, near the village of Lukonino, thirty versts from Kaluga, a women's community was founded through the labour of Hieroschemamonk Gerasim of the Lavrentiev Monastery in Kaluga. Girls from the surrounding villages came there, and Alexandra's acquaintances told her about it. In 1915 she entered the community as a novice and stayed until 1918. Then she spent two years at home in her native village, moved to Serpukhov as a servant to well-⁠to-⁠do people, and from 1925 worked in a textile factory.

In 1937 the government issued a secret order to arrest all monks and novices of the closed monasteries. On 15 and 16 February 1938 her fellow workers at the factory were questioned, and they said that she had lived in a monastery, that she spoke against the authorities in the workers' hostel, and that she did not support the state loans. She was arrested on 21 February 1938 and imprisoned at Serpukhov.

At her interrogation she confessed that she remained firm in her religious convictions. She had told the workers that life had been better under the tsar, that those who say there is no God should not be believed, that God exists, that churches were being closed and priests put in prison, and that the priests ought to be defended. On the day of her arrest the investigation was closed, and the case was sent to the troika.

On 7 June 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced her to ten years in a labour camp, and she was sent to Bamlag. Alexandra Khvorostyannikova reposed in the Khabarovsk region on 30 September 1943 and was buried in an unknown grave. She is commemorated on 30 September and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.