Schema-Abbess Evpraksiia of Ladoga Convent passed away on this day in 1823. The “Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church,” adopted by the Council of Bishops in 2000, very vividly captures Orthodox anthropology: “As equal bearers of the divine image and human dignity, man and woman are created to be completely united in love: ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh’ (Gen. 2:24). (…) Man and woman are two different modes of existence in one humanity. They need communication and complementation” (Personal, Family and Public Morality. X.I). I am bringing this beautiful citation up because I realized today that I haven’t written about a single woman in two months. This obvious deficiency is in need of correction. Yesterday’s report was about Abbot Innocent of Valaam, and today’s is about Abbess Evpraksiia (Nakhotina). Both were born and bred in the North of Russia. Evdokiia (her baptismal name) was born in 1733 into a merchant’s family in the ancient town of Toropets, approximately equidistant from Moscow and Saint Petersburg. As was often the case back then, she was orphaned at an early age. She was taken in by her uncle, Archpriest Feodor Dubianskii, the father-confessor of Empress Elisabeth. Empress Elisabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great, was a God-fearing ruler who, with the help of Russian “Praetorian Guard,” gave an oath to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment after the ascension to the throne. As an example of her piety, she required all diplomats posted in Saint Petersburg to respect the fasting days of the Russian Church. Understandably, Elisabeth took good care of her spiritual father. She made him a hereditary nobleman (potomstvennyi dvorianin), and toward the end of his life, he owned eight thousand serfs. Despite having a comfortable life with her uncle, Evdokiia left Saint Petersburg without informing Fr. Feodor and entered St. Alexis Convent near Arzamas in Central Russia. She was 25 years old at the time. As I wrote yesterday, many monasteries ceased to exist because of Catherine the Great’s reform, and St. Alexis Convent was one of them. Because of this, Evdokiia moved to St. Nicholas Convent in the same region and spent seven years there. Evdokiia had difficulty adjusting to a rough peasant diet at the beginning of her monastic path. She sustained herself on kvas (a cereal-based, fermented beverage) and rye bread. She got used to this ration, which was the main thing she ate until her death. Evdokiia had to return to the capital once her uncle learned about her whereabouts. However, she did not stay with Fr. Feodor for long. In 1768, she entered Holy Dormition Convent in Staraia Ladoga near St. Petersburg, where I understand she was tonsured into the small schema. In 1779, she became the abbess there. There were visions in her life that transformed into reality. While bedridden and about to die in St. Nicholas Convent, she saw a large icon of the Dormition being brought into the room, and suddenly recovered. At the Ladoga convent, she saw Great Martyr Barbara in a dream. The following day, a wealthy lady donated the exact amount of money they needed for construction, informing her that St. Barbara had instructed her in a dream to do so. Mother Evpraksiia passed away at 91 years old. Her life story is suggestive of the fact that there are some saints who have been canonized and others who have not. Source: Monastyrskii Vestnik [Organ of the Synodal Department for Monastics and Monasteries]. | 
