Mary the Unknown

Holy Martyr Mary the Unknown was one of the three cell-⁠attendants of the Holy Martyr Evdokia Sheikova in the village of Puza (Nizhny Novgorod province). On 18 August 1919, when Evdokia was sentenced to death by shooting on a false charge, Mary chose death of her own will together with her mentor and the sisters, the Darias Ulybina and Timagina. She kept calm, knowing of the execution, was shot the same day and buried in a common grave.

Mary came to the place of death an hour beforehand and was calm, although she knew that they would be killed. The Council of Bishops of the Russian Church, held on 13-15 August 2000, numbered her among the New Martyrs of Russia. Her day of commemoration was set at 5 August in the old style, which is 18 August in the new. On 5 June 2001 her holy relics were found. Since then they rest in a shrine in the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the village of Suvorov.

She is commemorated on 18 August, the day of her death, in the new style, on 5 June at the finding of her relics, on 27 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Diveyevo, on the movable day around 12 September in the Synaxis of the Saints of Nizhny Novgorod and on the movable day around 7 February in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.