Saint Pelagia was born on October 8, 1901, in the village of Spirino, Egoryevsky district of Ryazan province, in the family of peasant Nikita Balakirev. After receiving primary education in a rural school, she helped her father with the household. In 1927, she moved to the village of Sharapovo, where she worked as a guard at the Trinity Church and became the head of the parish.
On November 18, 1937, Pelagia was arrested and imprisoned in Taganka prison. The next day, she underwent interrogation, where she was accused of collecting signatures for a complaint against the village council and engaging in anti-Soviet propaganda. Pelagia admitted her guilt in anti-Soviet propaganda but later retracted her testimony. On November 27, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced her to eight years of imprisonment in a labor camp.
In 1940, after complaints, the sentence was deemed lawful. Pelagia Balakireva passed away on June 30, 1943, in a labor camp in Vologda region and was buried in an unmarked grave.
