Nun
Venerable Martyr Macaria (in the world Saprykina Praskovya Afanasyevna) was born on October 28, 1867, in the village of Telyazhe, Oryol province. She completed her rural school and in 1887 entered as a novice in the Cross Exaltation Women’s Monastery of the city of Belev, Tula province. In 1921, the monastery was closed, and until 1930, the nun lived on the territory of the former monastery, working at the Stefanovskaya Church. On June 1, 1931, she was arrested for “participating in the organization of an illegal monastery” and sentenced to 5 years in concentration camps, with a substitution for exile to Kazakhstan. After being released in 1936, she returned to Belev and worked in the artel “Red Producer.” On December 16, 1937, she was arrested again, accused of counter-revolutionary activities and of being “in an underground monastery.” On December 30, 1937, she was convicted and sentenced to death by shooting. She was shot on January 8, 1938, and buried in a mass grave at the 162nd km of the Simferopol highway.
