Seraphima of Sezenovo

Venerable Seraphima of Sezenovo, in the world Euphemia Morgachyova, was abbess of the Sezenovo convent near Lebedyan, in the diocese of Tambov. She was born in 1806 and fell asleep on 13 February 1877. The Russian Orthodox Church venerates her among the venerable women. Her commemoration is on the day of her death, 13 February, and in the Synaxes of the Saints of Voronezh, Lipetsk, Ryazan and Tambov.

Euphemia Morgachyova was born on 14 September 1806 in the village of Nizhny Lom, Ranenburg district, Ryazan governorate, into a peasant family. In 1825, when her relatives moved to the Samara governorate, Euphemia stayed in her native village and lived in seclusion until 1839, when she set out with a collecting book to raise money for building a church in the village of Sezenovo, and for fourteen years she collected money. The collections were enormous, the building of the church went well, the iconostasis was painted by the best artists, and all this thanks to the efforts of Euphemia.

In 1849 the Saint John community of women of Sezenovo was founded, and in 1853 it was turned into a convent, and Euphemia, who had laboured so much on it, was appointed head of the convent. On 20 December 1853 she received monastic tonsure with the name Seraphima, and on 22 November 1855 she was confirmed as abbess. Three magnificent churches of the convent, six huge buildings and more than fifty one-⁠storey ones, the acquisition of more than 700 desyatinas of land, the arrangement of all manner of the convent's holdings, all these are eloquent witnesses and monuments of the tireless thirty-⁠eight-⁠year work of the abbess Seraphima for the benefit of the Saint John convent of Sezenovo, first as collector for the building of the church and then as abbess. The venerable one fell asleep on 13 February 1877, receiving the schema with the name Euphemia fifteen minutes before her death.