Maria of Belogorsk

Holy Blessed Maria of Belogorsk, born Maria Konstantinovna Sherstyukova, was the first digger of the Belogorye caves, by the upper Don, in the Voronezh province, and passed away on 22 June 1822. She is commemorated on 22 June, by the old calendar, at the Resurrection (Alexander Nevsky) monastery of Belogorye.

She was born in 1740 in Biryuch and was the wife of a poor Cossack, Samuil Sherstyukov, a man given to drink; she too fell into drink and a sinful life, especially after her husband's death. She gave her two sons, Gregory and Simeon, to other people and lived by healing with herbs, coming to be thought a witch. She lived so until fifty-⁠five. Gathering herbs in the wild mountains of Belogorye, she was seized by heavy thoughts about her life, and a spark of repentance fell into her soul. In 1795 she went on pilgrimage to Kyiv. The sight of the Kyiv caves and the thought of the labour of the ascetics there overwhelmed her, and her confessor, a monk of the Caves Lavra born in the Voronezh province, advised her to dig caves near her village for the salvation of her soul. Back in Belogorye, in 1796 she began to dig caves, in deep solitude. Soon many people came to labour with her.

The church and civil authorities tried to stop her between 1800 and 1807, but she went on. In 1817 the committee of ministers reported to Emperor Alexander I; the governor of Voronezh gave a favourable opinion, and it was decided that the entrance should remain free and a church be built in the caves, with help from the treasury. Maria asked that the church bear the name of Saint Alexander Nevsky, in honour of the tsar's angel. The caves then reached 299 arshins; work on the church began on 22 January 1819 and was finished that same year, and the church was consecrated on 30 August 1819. After twenty-⁠five years of labour Maria Konstantinovna died on 22 June 1822, at eighty-⁠two, and was buried in the burial chamber of the caves; a wooden church of the Ascension was later raised over it. The Belogorye caves now extend two and a half versts.