Matrenushka-Bosonozhka (Matrenushka the Barefooted) (1840s-1911)

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
MATRENUSHKA-BOSONOZHKA (Matrenushka the Barefoot) (born Matrona Petrovna Mylnikova) (1840s - 1911, St. Petersburg), schema nun. Born to a peasant family in Kostroma province and never educated. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 she worked as a nurse. After her husband perished in the war, she wandered barefoot for 33 years throughout Russia and the East, visiting holy sites. She gave all her money to churches and almshouses. From the early 1880s, Matrenushka lived in St. Petersburg, from 1895 she lived in a cell near the Our Lady’s Church of Joy for All Who Sorrow at Shlisselburgsky Avenue. In the 1880s, she took monastic vows under the name of Maria. She lived as a simpleton and was reputed among various groups of population as the "blessed nun". She was buried at Our Lady’s Church of Joy for All Who Sorrow.

References: Старица Матренушка-босоножка / Сост. А. Ф. Плотников // С.-Петерб. епарх. ведомости. 1995. № 13, ч. 2. С. 95-99.

V. V. Antonov. Matrenushka-Bosonozhka
Obukhovskoy Oborony Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Старица Матренушка-Босоножка / Сост. А. Ф. Плотников // С.-Петерб. епарх. ведомости., 1995 Our Lady’s Church of Joy for All Who Sorrow