Matrona of Moscow

Matrona Nikonova was born blind to a poor peasant family in the Tula province; from childhood she showed extraordinary gifts of prayer, spiritual insight, and healing, and people came from far away to seek her help. At seventeen she lost the use of her legs and remained seated for the rest of her life, bearing her infirmities without complaint. After the Revolution she moved to Moscow in 1925, living without a home of her own, moving among the apartments of friends and believers, often just ahead of the authorities. Throughout the harshest Soviet decades she received dozens of visitors daily, counseling, comforting, and praying for healing, and calling all to cling to the Church. She reposed in 1952; her relics now rest at the Pokrovsky monastery in Moscow, and she was glorified in 1999, becoming one of Russia's most beloved saints.