Martha of Tambov

Venerable Martha of Tambov (in the world Marfa Petrovna Aparina, in monastic life Margarita) was a schemanun, elder of Kirsanov and founder of the Tikhvin Convent of the Mother of God in the town of Kirsanov. She fell asleep on 1 (14) September 1800 at Tambov and was glorified in 1988, with a feast throughout the Church. She is commemorated on 28 July, by the old calendar, and in the synaxis of the saints of Tambov.

Life

She was born into a noble family in Saransk, at the beginning of the eighteenth century according to our sources. Around 1780, after the death of her father, she moved to Kirsanov with her mother, two brothers, Ivan and Sergei, and her sister Pelagia. From childhood she longed for ascetic labour and, from early on, stopped eating sweets. More than once her mother and nurse found her praying fervently at night and scolded her. She liked to gather her friends and tell them about God, instead of noisy games. More and more she desired the convent and withdrawal from the world. With tears she begged her mother to let her go, but in vain. The girl wore a black dress and, with her mother's permission, went to various convents. Often she did the servants' work herself, and if they erred she took the blame upon herself.

After her mother's death, around 1783, she gathered around her a small community of working maidens. The abbess was her sister Pelagia. Later the community became a convent, with the rule of the Sarov Hermitage. On one of her pilgrimages to Kiev she received secret tonsure with the name Margarita. Her confessors are thought to have been the priest Gabriel of the Archangel church in Tambov and Hieromonk Isaiah I (Zubkov) of the Sarov Hermitage. According to tradition, Abbot Nazarius (Kondratiev), later abbot of Valaam, often visited her on his way from Sarov, and remembered the elder's shining face, as if some unknown power came out of her.

Shortly before her death she moved from Kirsanov to Tambov, where she fell asleep on 1 (14) September 1800. On her body were heavy chains, whose key was never found. Many people came to the funeral. She was buried in the Exaltation of the Cross cemetery in Tambov, to the left of the altar of the cemetery church. She was glorified as venerable in 1988, with the feast established throughout the Church.