Alexandra Lebedeva

Holy Martyr Alexandra Lebedeva (Alexandra Yakovlevna Lebedeva) was born on 20 March 1874 in the village of Raevka in the Samara province. She was arrested on 23 September 1937 and condemned to death the same year, a confessor of the faith. The Russian Church commemorates her in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors.

She was a parishioner of the Resurrection church in the city of Pavlodar, in Kazakhstan. Arrested on 23 September 1937, she was charged in the group case of an alleged counter-⁠revolutionary organisation of the Resurrection church of Pavlodar. Three other women of the same church were tried with her: Agatha Krapivnikova, a former sister of the Nikolo-⁠Chernei Monastery who had stayed at Pavlodar after her exile ended, the nun Maria Portnova, and the laywoman Maria Stefani.

At her interrogation Alexandra said that she knew nothing of any counter-⁠revolutionary organisation at the church community and could give no testimony. The priests Lugovtsev, Pikalkin and Alexeev she had seen only in church during services, and had never spoken with them elsewhere. Nevertheless she was accused of active agitation against the authorities, of taking part in illegal meetings, and of giving material help to the exiles.

On 22 October 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced to death Alexandra Lebedeva, as well as the novices Agatha Krapivnikova and Maria Portnova and the laywoman Maria Stefani. She is commemorated on 7 February (new style), at the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.