Paraskeva of Toplovka

Venerable Paraskeva of Toplovka (in the world Olga Ivanovna Rodimtseva, 1849-1928) was abbess of the Topla Monastery in Crimea. She lived in the time of the closing of the monastery by Soviet power and fell asleep at the end of 1928. The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decided on her canonization on 25 March 2009, and the glorification took place on 11 July 2010. She is commemorated on 28 June (11 July) and on 3 (16) December.

Life

She was born in 1849 in Moscow province, in the settlement of Sadovaya. She finished the city school in Moscow and entered the Strastnoy Convent, where in 1874 she was tonsured a rassophore with the name Vyacheslava. In 1875, when the abbess of the Strastnoy Convent, Valeria, received a blessing to move to the Topla Monastery in the Taurida diocese, in a wooded area between the towns of Belogorsk and Stary Krym, she wished to take the nun Vyacheslava with her. Soon she was appointed secretary of the monastery council and, later, treasurer.

On 16 July 1889 Bishop Martinian of Taurida tonsured her into the mantle, with the name Paraskeva, in honour of the Venerable Martyr Paraskeva. In December of the same year she was appointed head of the monastery, and on 26 July 1890, the day of Saint Paraskeva, she was raised to abbess. On 13 July 1928 the presidium of the Crimean executive committee decided to close the monastery. Abbess Paraskeva and the nuns did all they could against the atheist power. In her testament she wrote: Do not grieve, my sisters, for me, your old mother, who loves you much in the Lord. Pray for me with church and cell prayer, love the monastery without reserve more than your life and live according to monastic vows. Your holy prayers, your strong love for the holy monastery and your ascetic life will serve me as a justification before the Lord, will give wings to my soul and bring me near to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22).

On Sunday, 16 December 1928, she was struck by paralysis of the heart and fell asleep. The Ukrainian source gives the date as Sunday 3 December, which shows the difference between the old and new calendar. The decision to canonize Abbess Paraskeva was taken by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 25 March 2009, and on 11 July 2010 she was glorified.