Sophia of Shamordino

Schemanun Sophia of Shamordino (born Sophia Mikhailovna Bolotova, 1845 to 1888) was the first abbess of the Kazan Ambrose convent at Shamordino, from 1884 to 1888, a spiritual daughter of Saint Ambrose of Optina. She was glorified in 1987 as a locally venerated saint, when the Synaxis of the Saints of Tula was established, in the diocese of Tula. According to our sources this is not a canonization for the whole Church. Our calendar gives her on 22 September (Old Style).

Family and youth

She was born on 16 (28) June 1845 of an ancient noble family, a great-⁠granddaughter of the encyclopedist Andrei Timofeevich Bolotov and sister of Dimitri Bolotov. Her father, Mikhail Pavlovich Bolotov, a graduate of the University of Saint Petersburg, was a titular counsellor and supervisor of the grain stores of the Bogoroditsk district. Her mother, Alexandra Dimitrievna, a deeply devout woman, brought up six children, among them Sophia, and gave them a secular and religious education. Four of the five children became monastics. Her brother Dimitri was tonsured a monk with the name Daniel and became known as an icon painter at Optina, with the portrait of Saint Ambrose and the icon "Increaser of Bread", painted with the elder's blessing.

In 1875, at thirty, Sophia married the former student of the Medical-⁠Surgical Academy, the nobleman Andrei Nikolaevich Yankov, at the Trinity-⁠Sergius Lavra. The marriage lasted a little over a year, and her husband died suddenly; three days after the funeral their daughter Nadezhda was born.

At Optina

For three years she lived on her estate in the Tula province, managed the household herself and did many works of charity, devoting herself to her daughter and to the orphan children of the poor. In 1880 she sold her estate to move to her father at Yekaterinoslav, but at Tula she learned that he had died. Hearing from neighbours of Elder Ambrose, she went to him for spiritual guidance for her life ahead and resolved to fulfil her desire for monastic life, becoming the elder's spiritual daughter.

As a test, the elder ordered her to marry an elderly landowner of Kozelsk, Nikolai Astafiev, which she did. After the wedding Sophia and her daughter moved to her husband's estate in the Kaluga province, not far from Optina. She carried out Elder Ambrose's commissions with great care and love, and he said that he had not had and would not have another disciple like her. Nikolai Astafiev died assured that after his death Sophia would enter a monastery, gave a bell for Shamordino and asked to be buried in that monastery.

Shamordino

At Shamordino, on the estate of a deceased widow, Klyucharyova, a community of nuns was founded by decision of the Holy Synod in June 1884. Sophia entrusted her nine-⁠year-⁠old daughter to her godmother and asked Bishop Vladimir of Kaluga and Borovsk to be received into the new community. On 13 August 1884 the abbot of Optina, Isaac, and her confessor, Ambrose, presented to the bishop the proposal that Mother Sophia be confirmed abbess of the community under construction. On 4 September 1884 Sophia was tonsured a nun by Ambrose, and later into the mantle, keeping her name. The community was changed into the Shamordino convent, whose birthday is counted as 14 October 1884, when the first church was consecrated.

Mother Sophia, of impressive appearance, firm character, fervent faith in God and great obedience to the elder, bore all the difficulties. She remained abbess four years, during which the convent was founded and ordered. She reposed in 1888, leaving a well-⁠established community of two hundred and fifty nuns. Under her the project of a stone church was drawn up and its site marked out. Elder Ambrose said already in her lifetime, "Mother Sophia is holy". Remembrance of her in prayer has been kept, and the faithful venerate her as an intercessor and protector. In 1987 she was glorified as Sophia of Shamordino among the locally venerated saints of the diocese of Tula.