Saint Martyr Paraskeva Fedorova was born in Moscow in 1882 into a poor working-class family. From the age of twelve, she worked to help support her parents. During the 1930s, she served as a nurse in the pediatric ward of the Sokolniki Hospital. A woman of deep faith, she frequently attended the churches of Moscow and often welcomed priests, nuns, and pilgrims into her home. She also made regular pilgrimages to Zagorsk in order to seek spiritual guidance from the elder ascetic Hippolytus (Yakovlev).
During one of her visits to his residence, there was together with them another woman who posed as a believer but was, instead, an agent of the NKVD. While assisting with household duties, she secretly reported to the authorities on those who visited the elder seeking his spiritual counsel.
On September 28, 1937, Paraskeva was arrested and imprisoned.
During her interrogation, she admitted that she had provided hospitality to nuns and helped them with food and other necessities. However, she firmly denied any involvement in an anti-Soviet church organization.
An NKVD troika sentenced her to eight years of imprisonment in a corrective labor camp. She reposed in the Lord at Siblag on December 11, 1938, and was buried in an unmarked grave.
On December 26, 2006, she was glorified as a Holy New Martyr and Confessor by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Her memory is celebrated on December 11 (November 28 according to the Old Calendar), as well as on the feast of the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
