Fool-for-Christ · c. 1730 – c. 1803
Xenia of St. Petersburg
Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, Fool-for-Christ
New Calendar January 24 Old Calendar February 6
Why they are a saint
After her husband's sudden death she took his name and lived as a fool-for-Christ in the streets of St. Petersburg. She is asked for employment, housing, and help in hardship. The years given for this life are c. 1730 – c. 1803. The New Calendar feast is January 24.
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
Patron of finding employment, housing, hardship, St. Petersburg, because she lived in poverty and cared for those in need.
Prayer
O holy Xenia of St. 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.
Do not confuse with Xenia of Rome (same calendar day); Xenia of Kalamata.