Helen Astashkina

Holy Venerable Martyr Helen Astashkina, a nun, in the world Helen Vasilievna Astashkina, was born in 1878 (according to other data, 1882) in the village of Staroe Drakino in the Narovchat district of the Penza province, in a peasant family. She received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 10 August 1937. She was numbered among the saints at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in the year 2000.

The family lived in plenty, but without extravagance. From her youth Helen sought the monastic struggle and in 1895, with her parents' blessing, she entered the Shikhan Protection Monastery in the Gorodishche district of the Penza province as a novice. For a long time she lived at the monastery on probation, through various obediences, and only in 1913, by decree of the Spiritual Consistory, was she enrolled among the sisters of the monastery.

After a time she was moved to the Kazan Mokshan Monastery. After the dispersal of this monastery, in 1917, she returned to her native village. She had her own house and kept the household alone, but continued the monastic life, remaining a virgin.

In 1932 she moved to the village of Shadym in the Kovylkino district of the Mordvin A.S.S.R. Her cherished dream was that the churches would resume their services and that church singing would be heard in them again. She kept friendships with former sisters of the closed monasteries and knew many priests.

In 1937 the nun Helen was arrested and accused of being an active participant in a counter-⁠revolutionary church and monarchist organization and of carrying on defeatist and anti-⁠collective-⁠farm agitation. She did not admit guilt and at the interrogations said only that she was an Orthodox Christian and sought to live according to her monastic vows. On 5 August 1937 the NKVD troika of the Mordvin A.S.S.R. sentenced her to the highest penalty, and on 10 August the sentence was carried out by shooting.

She is commemorated on 10 August, on 12 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Penza Metropolis, and on 7 February in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (new style).