Martha of Diveevo

Venerable Martha of Diveevo (in the world Maria Semyonovna Milyukova, 1810-1829) was a schemanun of the Diveevo Monastery who lived only nineteen years, six of them in the community. Saint Seraphim of Sarov revered her and said that in the Kingdom of Heaven she is the protector of the orphan girls of Diveevo. She was glorified by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2004 as a venerable saint.

Childhood

She was born on 10 February 1810 in the village of Pogiblovo (today Malinovka) in the Ardatov district of Nizhny Novgorod province, into a peasant family close to Saint Seraphim. Her father was Semyon Dmitrievich Milyukov; she had an older sister, Praskovia, and a brother, Ivan. She was baptized on 13 February 1810, loved the services from childhood and prayed in the church at Khokhlovo. During Great Lent of 1823, on her way home from church, she fell into a hole in the ice of the river Irzha and regarded her rescue as a miracle. With the blessing of Saint Seraphim, her sister Praskovia was the first to enter the Diveevo community.

Entering the Diveevo community

On 21 November 1823, on the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, Maria, then thirteen, came for the first time to Saint Seraphim with her sister. The elder, seeing in her a chosen vessel of grace, did not allow her to return home but commanded her to stay in the community at the Kazan church. From her earliest years she struggled with strictness, more severely than the other sisters of the community. She prayed without ceasing, answered gently only the questions that were needed and was almost silent. Elder Seraphim confided to her all his revelations, the future glory of the monastery and other spiritual secrets.

The Mill community

Soon the Mother of God appeared again to Saint Seraphim, commanding him to found a new community of maidens beside the Kazan community. On 9 December 1825 Maria and another sister came to Saint Seraphim, who led them to a more distant hermitage, carrying wax candles, oil and rusks. Before the Crucifix hanging on the wall, the elder gave each sister a lighted candle and placed Maria on the right side of the Crucifix and Praskovia on the left, standing himself in the middle. They stood so for over an hour while he prayed. Then he kissed the Crucifix and told them to do the same.

For four more years Maria laboured, helping to raise the new community: she prepared posts and timber for the mill that the Mother of God had blessed to be built there, from which the community received the name Mill Community. She carried stones for the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, ground flour and did other obediences, always keeping the prayer of the heart. In the last year of her life the community received three desyatinas of land, which were ploughed with one furrow three times, and the digging of the Holy Ditch began; by the time of her death it was already clearly visible.

Repose

She lived in the community only six years and fell asleep on 21 August 1829, aged nineteen, having been tonsured into the great schema shortly before. Saint Seraphim said of her that when the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was being built the girls carried stones, some two, some three, while she gathered five or six and, silently, with prayer on her lips, raised her burning spirit to the Lord, and soon she reposed, ill in the stomach. Foreseeing her death, Saint Seraphim grieved and wept, and said that she had come to stand at the Throne of God, near the Queen of Heaven, with the holy virgins. He had tonsured her into the great schema with the name Martha and told Sister Xenia Putkova to commemorate her in the lists as Schemanun Martha. She was buried in a coffin he had hollowed out with his own hands, in the schema, mantle and kamilavka he had given her. She was tall and pleasant in appearance, with an oval, fair and fresh face, blue eyes, and thick light-⁠brown eyebrows and hair.

Veneration

Her veneration began during Saint Seraphim's own lifetime, when he honoured her and taught others to do so. On 27 September 2000, on the Exaltation of the Cross, her relics were found, together with those of Schemanun Alexandra, the foundress, and of the nun Elena. On 22 December 2000 they were glorified as locally venerated saints of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, and on 6 October 2004 the Council of Bishops decided to number them among the saints venerated throughout the Church. In April 2008 the feast of the Synaxis of the Diveevo Saints was established, on which she is also commemorated. On 21 August 2008 a side chapel in the Kazan church was consecrated in honour of Saints Martha, Elena and Alexandra.