Anna Ostroglazova

Holy Martyr Anna Ostroglazova was born on 19 November 1900 in the city of Kaluga, in the family of Protopriest John Alekseevich Ostroglazov. She was sentenced in 1937 to ten years in a camp and died a martyr of hunger in the camp. The Russian Church honours her among the New Martyrs and Confessors.

She finished a secondary school and entered an institute of public education; after two years, in 1920, she left the institute. She then took a post as bookkeeper at the pedagogical school in Kaluga. There, for her gentle nature, she was loved by teachers and pupils alike, many of whom came to tell her their troubles. Anna Ivanovna was a deeply believing, pious and serious person, and when the see of Kaluga was taken by Bishop Augustine, she became his closest helper. An NKVD officer who was gathering data on her and preparing the decision for her arrest wrote of her: "priest's daughter, unmarried, active churchwoman". After her arrest, on 16 October 1937, the administration of the pedagogical school gave a character report: she had worked at the school for about fifteen years, did her work as bookkeeper well, was very silent, so it was very hard to know her; she never spoke at meetings and in conversations limited herself to short answers; as the daughter of a servant of the cult, living with her father, she was always in the midst of churchmen, went often to church, prayed zealously, bowed before the bishop, and the atmosphere in their home recalled a church.

At the interrogations the courageous and pious Christian held herself with dignity and calm, as a worthy daughter of her spiritual father, Archbishop Augustine. The investigator told her that she was arrested for anti-⁠Soviet activity and that the investigation demanded frank testimony; she answered: "I carried on no anti-⁠Soviet activity and do not admit guilt." Asked whether she was a member of a counter-⁠revolutionary monarchist organisation, she said that she did not confirm it. The testimony of Athanasius Vasilievich Lyubimov was read to her, who named her a member of the church and monarchist organisation, "a trusted person of Augustine", who had carried on great anti-⁠Soviet activity, bringing up in a counter-⁠revolutionary religious spirit the intelligentsia, above all the children of former people and servants of the cult. She answered: "I do not confirm this and do not admit guilt." She also denied the charges that she had committed sabotage as bookkeeper, made anti-⁠Soviet slanders or spread superstitious rumours. On 19 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced her to ten years in a camp, where she received martyrdom by hunger. She is commemorated on 23 November, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Komi, on 11 February, and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kaluga, on 31 July.