Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg
Acrylic on wood panel
5" x 7"

Our venerable Mother, the Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg was an 18th century Russian fool-for-Christ.

When Xenia was 26 years old she fell into great grief upon the death of her husband, Colonel Andrei Feodorovich Petrov. Appearing to have lost her mind from her grief, she distributed her possessions to the poor and vanished from St. Petersburg for eight years. It is said that during these years she lived at some hermitage with a sisterhood of holy ascetics, learning about prayer and the spiritual life from an elder.

At her return to St. Petersburg, she clothed herself in one of her late husband’s old uniforms and thereafter refused to respond the name of Xenia Grigorievna, answering instead only to the name of her late husband, Andrei Feodorovich. It was as if she, in her deep devotion to her husband, had hoped to take upon herself the burden of his unrepented sins and of his unfortunate demise without the Holy Mysteries. Sorrowing for her own sins and for his, she began her long pilgrimage of wandering through the streets of St. Petersburg. She was most often to be found in the vicinity of the parish of Saint Matthias where the poorest people lived in shabby huts.

Soon Blessed Mother Xenia's great virtue and spiritual gifts began to be noticed.  She was given many great spiritual gifts of prayer and prophecy, and often foretold things to come. She became known as someone pleasing to God, and everyone loved her. The people of St. Petersburg came to love her. Her life was centered on God, seeking protection and comfort only in Him, placing the Kingdom of Heaven before earthly possessions.  

St. Xenia lived about forty-five years after the death of her husband, and departed to the Lord at the age of seventy-one.  (1, 2, 3, 4)