Joannicia Kozhevnikova

Holy Venerable Martyr Joannicia Kozhevnikova, abbess of the convent of the Entry into the Temple of the Mother of God in Tikhvin, suffered in 1937 in the case of a group of clergy of the town. The Azbyka page says nothing of her life before, nor of her birth date, and tells only the case.

In 1937 a new wave of arrests passed over Tikhvin and its surroundings, as over the whole country. With Protopresbyter John Sarv, dean of the town, there were imprisoned at Tikhvin fourteen accused: seven priests, the abbess of the convent and six laymen. All were declared one counterrevolutionary group, led by Protopresbyter John Sarv, and the file was named "Sarv Ivan Romanovich and others". All the clergy in the file were shot, and the others received ten years in a camp each. Five priests and the abbess Joannicia refused, in spite of torture, to admit guilt and to slander the others, giving a rare example of Christian manliness in unity. The abbess Joannicia was shot at Tikhvin on 3 December 1937, together with Protopresbyter John Sarv, the hegumen Arsenius (Dmitriev) and the priests Basil Kandelyabrov, Nicholas Pokrovsky, Emilian Panasevich and Nicholas Zelenov.

The Church commemorates her on 3 December, the day of her death, in the new style, on 11 July, on a movable day, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Saint Petersburg Metropolia, and on the movable day of the synaxis of the new martyrs.