Ksenia of St. Petersburg

☦ Early Life & Marriage

Holy Blessed Ksenia was born in the first half of the 18th century from pious and noble parents. Her father's name was Gregory; her mother's name is unknown. Upon reaching adulthood, Ksenia Grigorievna married the court singer, Colonel Andrei Feodorovich Petrov, and lived with her husband in St. Petersburg.

But the Lord did not decree that the young couple should walk along the path of life together for long; soon death separated them: Andrei Feodorovich died, leaving Ksenia Grigorievna a widow in the twenty-sixth year of her life.

☦ Holy Foolishness for Christ

This unexpected blow struck Ksenia Grigorievna so strongly that she immediately seemed to forget everything earthly — all the joys and pleasures of the world — and many thought her to have lost her mind. Her relatives even submitted a petition to the authorities asking to forbid Ksenia from giving away her property. The superiors of the deceased Petrov summoned her, but after speaking with her were completely convinced that Ksenia was perfectly healthy and therefore had the right to dispose of her property as she pleased.

Freed from all earthly cares, Saint Ksenia chose for herself the difficult path of "foolishness for Christ's sake" (yurodstvo). She gave away all her property to the poor and gave the house to her good friend Paraskeva Antonova. Dressed in her husband's suit — his underwear, shirt, and uniform — she began to assure everyone that Andrei Feodorovich had not died at all, but that his wife Ksenia Grigorievna had died. She would not respond when called Ksenia Grigorievna, but would respond willingly when called Andrei Feodorovich.

☦ Life of Wandering

Reliquary at our parish

Ksenia did not have any specific place of residence. For the most part, she spent the whole day wandering around the St. Petersburg countryside, mainly in the area of the parish of the Church of St. Matthew the Apostle, where poor people lived in small wooden houses. The strange costume of the poor, barely shod woman, her allegorical conversations, her complete meekness and gentleness often gave evil people and street boys a reason to mock the blessed one — but she endured all these reproaches without complaint.

Little by little they got used to the blessed woman's oddities. People offered her warm clothes and money, but Ksenia never agreed to exchange her rags, spending her entire life in a red blouse and a green skirt, or vice versa — a green blouse and a red skirt. These were apparently the colors of her husband's military uniform. She did not accept ordinary alms, but only took from good people the "king on a horse" (kopecks with the image of a horseman) — and immediately gave them to other people as poor as herself.

Where she spent her nights remained unknown for a long time. It was decided by the police to find out where this strange woman spent the night. It turned out that Ksenia, no matter the time of year or weather, went to the field for the night, kneeling in prayer until dawn, alternately bowing to the ground on all four sides.

Another time, workers building a new stone church at the Smolensk Cemetery began to notice that at night, during their absence from the building, someone was carrying whole mountains of bricks onto the top of the church under construction. They decided to find out who this free, tireless worker could be — and it turned out to be the servant of God, Blessed Ksenia.

☦ Gifts of Grace

For her great deeds and patience, the Lord glorified His chosen one during her lifetime. The servant of God Ksenia was granted the gift of clairvoyance into peoples' hearts and of future events. She predicted the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Ivan Antonovich; she secretly predicted the death of the merchant's wife Krapivnina, saying: "The nettle is green, but it will soon fade" — and she predicted marriage for one poor girl.

Teaching people truthfulness, Blessed Ksenia often revealed the secrets of those she visited. The mercy of God overshadowed Ksenia so much that even those she visited or from whom she ate were happy and successful in business. Both the merchants and the cab drivers all tried to serve her in some way. Those to whom Blessed Ksenia herself gave something were particularly visited by well-being.

☦ Repose & Glorification

In the seventy-first year of her earthly life, Blessed Ksenia rested in the sleep of a righteous woman. Her body was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Many signs of God's mercy began to take place at her tomb immediately. Through the prayers of Blessed Ksenia, the Lord saved one girl from a terrible marriage with an escaped convict who had pretended to be the colonel he had killed. After memorial services were performed over her grave, sufferers received healing, harmony was restored in broken families, and the needy received what they needed.

Over time, a chapel was built over the grave of Blessed Ksenia, to which her many admirers flocked. After the revolution, the Bolsheviks closed the chapel, but no effort by the atheists ever succeeded in suppressing among the people the memory of the blessed one and the faith in her prayerful intercession before the throne of God.

Blessed Ksenia of St. Petersburg was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988 during the millennial celebrations of the Baptism of Russia. Her feast day is celebrated on February 6 (January 24 in the Old Style calendar).

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Video: The Life of Blessed Ksenia of St. Petersburg