Theoctista Chentsova

Holy Martyr Theoctista Chentsova was born on 21 January 1880 in the city of Kaluga, in the family of the merchant Semyon Chentsov, who dealt in iron hardware. Theoctista Semyonovna finished the town school. In September 1937 the authorities arrested her as an active believer, accusing her of counterrevolutionary activity. She died in a camp in Karaganda on 16 February 1942.

At the interrogation she denied all the charges. The investigator told her that she had filled her flat with icons and held secret loud prayers. She answered that she had a good many icons at home, about twenty, that some had once been in the corridor but after the tenants' protest she had moved them into the rooms, yet she held no noisy prayers. Then she was told that she gave suppers after church services at which anti-⁠Soviet conversations were held, that she belonged to a counterrevolutionary church and monarchist organization and that she spread slander and superstitious rumours. They read her the testimony of other accused persons, who called her the daughter of a rich merchant and an active churchwoman. She denied each point, saying that she did not admit guilt.

On 19 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced her to ten years in a labour camp. Theoctista Semyonovna died in one of the Karaganda camps on 16 February 1942 and was buried in an unknown place. The saint is commemorated, according to the Azbyka page, on 31 July and 23 November. The year of her canonization is not given.