Maria Gatchinskaya (Lelyanova) (1874-1932)

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
MARIA GATCHINSKAYA (born Lidia Alexandrovna Lelyanova) (1874, St. Petersburg -1932, Leningrad), schema nun. A daughter of a wealthy St. Petersburg merchant, she studied at a gymnasium. From 1909 she lived in Gatchina, at 41 Baggovutskaya Street (the house has not survived). She had rheumatism from an early age, and was bed-ridden from 1912. However, she found a gift for consoling mourners. In the 1920s, she took the veil under the name of Maria and received numerous visitors who sought spiritual comfort from her. Maria Gatchinskaya, whose confessor was archpriest Ioann Smolin, soon had a circle of young female admirers gathered around her. In February 1932, Maria Gatchinskaya was arrested and put into a prison hospital. According to one of the versions concerning her death she died shortly after imprisonment following doctors' experiments. She was buried at Smolenskoe Orthodox Cemetery near the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed; the faithful consider her a martyr.

References: Антонов В. В. Она имела дар утешения // Возвращение. 1995. № 3. С. 44-48.

V. V. Antonov. Maria Gatchinskaya (Lelyanova)
Smolin Viktor Valentinovich
Xenia Blazhennaya (real name Petrova Xenia Grigorievna)
Антонов В. В. Она имела дар утешения // Возвращение, 1995