Fool-for-Christ · ca. 1800
Our Holy Mother Xenia of Petersburg
Our Holy Mother Xenia of Petersburg, fool for Christ (ca. 1800)
New Calendar February 6 Old Calendar February 19
Why they are a saint
She was born about 1730, and as a young woman married an army colonel named Andrei, a handsome and dashing man fond of worldly living. The Orthodox Church commemorates Our Holy Mother Xenia of Petersburg on February 6.
Life
Saint Xenia Grigorievna Petrova lived in Saint Petersburg in the eighteenth century, the wife of Major Andrew Petrov. She was widowed at twenty-six when her husband died suddenly at a party without Confession or Holy Communion, which grieved her deeply.
She began wearing her husband's clothing and asked to be called by his name, Andrew Feodorovich. For the next forty-five years she lived as a fool for Christ, mocked by many, accepting only small sums of money, which she gave to the poor, and spending her nights in prayer in a field outside the city. When a church was being built in the Smolensk cemetery, she secretly carried bricks to the site at night. She was known to prophesy.
She probably died at the end of the eighteenth century and was buried in the Smolensk cemetery. By the 1820s people were flocking to her grave to ask her intercession, taking so much earth from it that it had to be replaced.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
Those who turn to her in prayer receive healing and deliverance from afflictions; she is also known for helping people who seek jobs.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Orthodox Christians usually take Our Holy Mother Xenia of Petersburg as a patron when they bear the name Our at baptism, or were born or baptized near the feast on February 6. Russian, Slavic Orthodox faithful also honor his as one of their own.
Prayer
O holy Our Holy Mother Xenia of Petersburg, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.