Mary of Olonets

Saint Mary of Olonets, a venerable woman, was born in the nineteenth century in the village of Perentino in the Staraya district of Novgorod province, to pious parents. Her father, Basil Sofronov, had four other children, two sons and two daughters. From childhood she learned the Book of Hours and the Psalter. In winter evenings she read the Lives of the Saints, and at night she rose secretly and made prostrations before the holy icons.

The years passed, but Mary did not decide to make a family of her own. She often visited the monasteries and the hermits who lived in the forests beyond the river Lovat. One of those holy elders advised her to go north, to Lake Vozhe, where the hermit Father Isaiah, her uncle, lived and would guide her on the way of salvation. So she set out for Olonets to receive the blessing of Father Isaiah and stayed there to live as an ascetic. After three years of struggle and prayer new temptations came, and she had to leave her hut and wander in the forests and the wilderness. After many hardships she reached Stavropol in the Caucasus on pilgrimage, where she sought a place of quiet in a ravine. She gave her soul to the Lord in the year 1860. She is remembered on 19 February.