Paraskeva Makarova, novice

Saint Paraskeva was born in 1878 in the village of Makaryovo, Volokolamsk district of Moscow province, in the family of Kosma Makaryov. After the death of her father in 1907, the family engaged solely in farming. Paraskeva completed her rural schooling and in 1903 settled in a women's monastery in Kaluga province, where she labored until the closure of the community in 1925. In 1937, the novice was arrested by the NKVD for 'counter-revolutionary agitation.' During interrogations, she refused to admit her guilt, asserting that she had not conducted any agitation. On February 25, 1938, the NKVD troika sentenced her to execution. She was shot on March 7, 1938, and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.