Nun
Venerable Martyr Anfisa (in the world Sisoeva Alexandra Matveevna) was born on April 17, 1868 (1870?) in the village of Ivanovskoye, Tula province. From 1878, she labored in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Monastery in the city of Belev. In 1921, the monastery was closed, and nun Anfisa began to live in the city, working as a lamp-keeper and cleaner in the Stefan Church (at the former monastery).
On June 1, 1931, Mother Anfisa was arrested for participating in the organization of an illegal monastery at the Stefan Church in Belev. On June 18, she was convicted under articles 58-10, 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and sentenced to exile in Kazakhstan.
Nun Anfisa was released in 1934 and returned to Belev, where on December 16, 1937, she was again arrested by the Belev department of the NKVD for the “group case of Bishop Nikita (Pribytkov).” On December 30, 1937, the troika of the USSR NKVD for the Tula region sentenced Mother Anfisa to the highest measure of punishment (accusation: “was part of an underground monastery, whose activities”).
On January 8, 1938, on the day of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos, Venerable Martyr Anfisa was shot and buried along with other martyrs in a mass grave at the 162nd km of the Simferopol highway.
