Animaisa of Ostretsovo

Saint Animaisa of Ostretsovo (in the world Maria Mikhailovna Smertina, 1875-1963) the venerable was a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church who preserved in the time of persecution the church of the village of Ostretsovo, in a life of poverty, prayer and almsgiving. She is venerated in the synaxis of the saints of Ivanovo. She is commemorated on 14 June, the day of her death, and her birthday, 15 July, is also remembered.

Family and beginnings

She was born on 3 (15) July 1875 in the village founded by her father, called "Mikhail Petrovich's Hamlet" (today the village of Kokoulintsy in the Oktyabrsky district). Little is known of her childhood and youth. Her parents, Mikhail Petrovich and Agafia Eremeevna Smertin, had eight children: Adrian, Anna, Konstantin, Marina, Maria (Animaisa), Nikolai, Paraskeva and Tikhon. The brothers Tikhon, Nikolai and Konstantin, who served in the navy, died young. Her brother Adrian (1883-1917), a commander of artillery, was shot at Vologda as a Tsarist officer. Her sisters Anna, Marina and Paraskeva (died 1937) were in the thirties dispossessed as "kulaks" and sent with their families into exile as enemies of the people, where they died.

Monastic life

In 1900 Maria Smertina entered the Makaryev-⁠Reshma monastery (founded probably in the 1390s by Saint Macarius of Zheltovody and Unzha), choosing the way of poverty and obedience. She was tonsured with the name Animaisa and lived in prayer, labour and obedience. For her humility and labours, in 1913 she accompanied Abbess Dosithea (Ipatova) to the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov and visited Kostroma. There she first met the future rector of the church of Saint Elijah at Rodniki, Father Peter Lebedev (1889-1937), who became her spiritual father. In the early 1920s she came to know Bishop Basil (Preobrazhensky) of Kineshma, vicar of the diocese of Kostroma, who guided many nuns of Makaryev-⁠Reshma. In 1927, when the monastery was closed by Soviet power and the nuns scattered, Sister Animaisa did not renounce the service of God and of the Holy Church.

At Ostretsovo

Led by the voice of God, she came to the town of Rodniki, received the blessing of Archpriest Peter Lebedev and went to the village of Ostretsovo, fifteen kilometres from Rodniki. She settled in a stone watchman's hut beside the Holy Trinity church. She zealously did the obedience of cleaning the church, which she also guarded, taking no pay. She earned her living by diligently sewing quilts, mending the neighbours' felt boots and making slippers for the dead. From her meagre earnings she gladly shared with the needy, especially the orphans Malyshev, with whom she shared her last piece of bread, thinking that one who can be content and share a little is rich. The report of Mother Animaisa's good deeds spread through the whole district, and people from many villages came to her for counsel. For ten years she was guided by Archpriest Peter, who told her the words of Saint Macarius of Egypt: "Your soul will enter into communion with God, as a bride with a bridegroom." After his martyrdom in 1937, the hieromartyr Peter Lebedev appeared to Mother Animaisa several times, strengthening her in her struggle.

On 31 May 1940 the church at Ostretsovo was closed by the authorities and the nun was left alone in the watchman's hut. In those dark years she showed special zeal in saving the church from wreckers, thieves and robbers. Expecting arrest, she went to a village woman, Olga Ivanovna Tsypleva, gave her the keys to the church doors and ordered: "Take the keys of the church, and even if they shoot me, give them to no one until an Orthodox priest comes to the church." After a short time representatives of the local authority came to her and demanded the keys. She answered that she had no keys. They searched the hut and did not find the keys. They did not dare break down the church doors and left, leaving her at liberty. So the church at Ostretsovo was saved.

On 2 February 1946 Father John Klevtsovsky, formerly protodeacon of the church of Saint Elijah at Rodniki, came to the village, and the nun handed him the keys. Father John saw all the precious adornment of the church preserved, although the church had been abandoned for ten years. At the end of summer 1946, after the church opened, for her steadfastness and special zeal she received from Archbishop Cyril (Pospelov) of Ivanovo and Shuya the obedience of altar server. In need, labour and constant cares Mother Animaisa did not forget unceasing prayer, which with fasting and good deeds filled her life to the end.

Her end and her words

A few days before her death she gathered her closest spiritual sisters and gave them all her modest belongings; to one of her friends she gave nothing, and she asked: "Mother, what will you give me?" Animaisa said prophetically: "To you, my dear friend, I leave my bed." Soon after her repose the woman was paralysed and lay for years bound to her bed. Before her death Mother Animaisa asked her friends not to grieve for her, saying that she would always be with those who remember her, pray to our Lord Jesus Christ and all the saints: "I will meet all of you, and I will comfort those who ask, and I will beseech the Holy Trinity for them." She reposed on 14 June 1963. The funeral was served by the rector of the Kazan church in the village of Koshcheevo. She was buried right beside the entrance, and so her prophecy was fulfilled: "I will meet all of you."

Her relics and veneration

In 1997, with the blessing of Archbishop Ambrose (Shchurov) of Ivanovo and Kineshma and by the effort of Archpriest Vitaly Utkin and the parish council of Rodniki, the relics of the venerable one were found and solemnly carried to the church of Saint Alexander Nevsky at Rodniki, met with the ringing of all the bells. Her reliquary stands to the left of the altar of the church of Saint Alexander Nevsky, and a particle of the relics is at the Holy Trinity church at Ostretsovo. It is said that straight after the burial many miracles began to occur at her grave: at the memorial services held there the sick were healed, quarrels ended in families, judges acquitted those unjustly condemned, those who had lost loved ones received consolation. The Canonization Commission of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church numbered Sister Animaisa among the venerable fathers, in the synaxis of the saints of Ivanovo.