Anna Zertsalova

Holy Martyr Anna Zertsalova was a spiritual writer of Moscow. She was born on 31 January 1870 and was shot on 27 November 1937 at the Butovo firing range (the source in one place also gives the year 1938, which does not agree). She was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2000, for veneration throughout the Church. Her commemoration is on 14 November by the old calendar (27 November by the new), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo.

She was arrested on 27 October 1937 and held in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. At the interrogation the investigator asked her who was the author of the books on the life of Priest Valentine Amphiteatrov and on the miracles said to have occurred through his prayers. She answered that the author was she, Anna Ivanovna Zertsalova, both of the books on the life of Priest Valentine Amphiteatrov and of those on the miracles that occurred through his prayers during his life and after his death. She had brought out the first book about 1910, that is, two years after his death, printed at a printing house. Before the revolution she published four books, each in an edition of a thousand copies. After the revolution she published a fifth book, on the healings at the grave of Priest Valentine Amphiteatrov. The last book was no longer printed, but typed on a typewriter in twenty to twenty-⁠five copies. Since the print run of the last book was limited, and the number of those who wished to have it exceeded it many dozens of times, the admirers of Priest Valentine Amphiteatrov copied it and it spread in manuscript.

The three-⁠man tribunal of the political police for the Moscow region sentenced Anna Ivanovna Zertsalova to death. She was shot at the Butovo range.

Among her writings are: The Lamp of Orthodoxy (the life and pastoral work of the former rector of the Court Archangel Cathedral of Moscow, Archpriest Valentine Nikolaevich Amphiteatrov, Moscow, 1912); Spiritual Instructions and Sermons of Valentine Nikolaevich Amphiteatrov, recorded from his words by one of his spiritual daughters (Moscow, 1916); and Ascetic of Faith and Piety.