Venerable Martyr Michael (in the world Marfa Ivanovna Ivanova) was born in 1867 in the village of Ivanino, Ruza district of Moscow province, into a peasant family. In her youth, she entered the Kazan Golovin Monastery, founded in 1876. After the monastery was closed, she remained living in the village of Golovino, prayed in the former monastery church, and worked as a dishwasher in a sanatorium.
The spiritual father of Marfa was Archimandrite Ambrose (Astakhov). In the early thirties, he tonsured Marfa Ivanovna into the schema with the name Michael. She became known for her righteous life.
Schema-nun Michael was arrested on August 26, 1937, and interrogated. She reported that she lived on the funds received from her admirers and that she indeed conducted secret services.
On October 8, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced schema-nun Michael to execution by shooting. She was shot on October 11, 1937, at the Butovo firing range near Moscow and buried in an unknown common grave.
