Schemanun
The 20th century became a difficult time for the Orthodox Church, when thousands of new names were inscribed in the Synod of Russian Saints. On December 23, the memory of nearly twenty Ryzan ascetics, who suffered for their faith in various years of the 20th century, is celebrated. Among them is Schema-nun Anna, a confessor who labored in the village of Sreznevo in the Shilov district. She was a spiritual daughter of the Hieromartyr Filaret Sreznevsky and for many years kept the miraculous icon of the Mother of God 'Intercessor of Sinners.' After the arrest of Father Filaret, she herself and Priest Sergey Sorokin were sent to concentration camps. Anna suffered greatly in the camps and during transfers, serving her sentence in Kazakhstan, Kamchatka, the Far East, and Siberia. In 1942, dying from exhaustion, she asked the priest to confess and commune her. He predicted that she would remain alive, leave the camp, and meet the maiden Maria, and that a few years later she would die in her arms. Everything came to pass: in 1950, Anna returned to Sreznevo and served at the church for eight years. She communicated with the Mother of God, and her spiritual eyes were opened. Soon she fell ill and died in the arms of one of the nuns—Maria, who took the monastic name Mariamna. The relics of the Blessed Confessor Anna are located in the Kazan church of the village where she labored.
