Venerable Martyr Antonina was born in 1880 in the village of Gorki, Zaraysky district of Ryazan province, in the family of Andrei Novikov. From the age of eight, she lived with her aunt in a monastery in Ryazan, where she learned to read and write. Later, she entered the Trinity-Maria Monastery in the city of Yegoryevsk, founded in 1900 by Nikifor Mikhailovich Bardygin. Venerable Martyr Nadezhda was born in 1891 in the village of Denisovo. From the age of nine, she studied in a church-parish school and then worked in a peasant household. At the age of 20, she became a novice in the same monastery.
Both novices labored in the monastery until its closure in 1918, after which they settled in Yegoryevsk, maintaining monastic rules. On May 19, 1931, they were arrested and imprisoned in the Yegoryevsk prison along with other nuns. They were accused of continuing their monastic life after the monastery's closure. In 1931, the novices were sentenced to five years of exile in Kazakhstan.
Upon their return in 1935, they continued to live according to monastic rules but were cautious towards those around them. On March 1, 1938, the novices were arrested again. The investigation accused them of anti-Soviet agitation, but they rejected all accusations. On March 11, the NKVD troika sentenced them to execution. On March 20, 1938, they were executed and buried in an unmarked grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
