Maria Stefani

Holy Martyr Maria Stefani (1878-1937), with the full name Maria Antonovna Stefani, was born in Odessa. She was a parishioner of the church of the Resurrection in Pavlodar.

On 23 September 1937 she was arrested at Pavlodar as a "member of a counter-⁠revolutionary organization of churchmen", in the group case "The counter-⁠revolutionary organization of churchmen of the Resurrection church, Pavlodar, 1937". At the questioning she said: "I know nothing about the existence of a counter-⁠revolutionary organization at the Resurrection church community and cannot give any testimony on this matter." In spite of her words, she was accused of having "been a member of a counter-⁠revolutionary organization of churchmen, conducted counter-⁠revolutionary agitation against the Soviet Union and taken part in illegal counter-⁠revolutionary meetings". On 22 October 1937 the NKVD troika of the East Kazakhstan region sentenced her to death by shooting. She was shot at Pavlodar, and the place of burial is not known. On 14 April 1989 she was rehabilitated by the presidium of the Pavlodar regional court for the repressions of 1937. She was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church at the Council of Bishops in August 2000.

She is commemorated on the movable day around 7 February, in the new style, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.