# Matrona the Barefoot

Matrona the Barefoot (Russian: Матрона Босоножка; also known as Matrona of Petersburg, born Matrona Petrovna Shcherbinina, married name Rumyantseva in her first marriage and Mylnikova in her second marriage; 1833, village of Vanino, Odelevskaya volost, Nerekhtsky Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire – 30 March 1911, Saint Petersburg) was a blessed Russian wanderer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She gained widespread popularity among her contemporaries. Metropolitan of Saint Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy noted that Matrona chose the paths of foolishness for Christ’s sake and wandering, receiving from God the gifts of foresight and miracle-working for her ascetic labors and humility. Her life serves as a concrete example to believers of one of the many paths leading to salvation.
Among the notable figures of her time who were closely acquainted with Matrona were John of Kronstadt and the wanderer Vasily the Barefoot. She maintained a long correspondence with the imperial family, and there is evidence of a personal meeting between the wanderer and Emperor Nicholas II. Immediately after her death, a pamphlet dedicated to her biography was published in Saint Petersburg. In the 2010s, the question of her canonization arose, leading to the publication of two books reviewing archival documents related to her life.
Photographs capturing her appearance were taken by renowned photographers of the time, including Karl Bulla. In the 2000s and 2010s, documentary films were produced, presenting Matrona the Barefoot’s image and biography to a wide audience.

## Biography
### Family Life

Matrona (recorded as Matryona in the revision lists of Kostroma Governorate in 1834) was born in 1833 in the village of Vanino, Odelevskaya volost, Nerekhtsky Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate, to Pyotr Evstigneev and Agafya Nesterova Shcherbinin. She was baptized on 27 March 1833 in honor of the martyr Matrona of Thessalonica. She was from a peasant family. It has been suggested that her father may have originated from the nearby village of Shcherbinino or that the family belonged to the Shcherbatov princes before the abolition of serfdom. Matrona had an older brother, Alexander, and younger brothers, Ivan and Makar.
It is speculated that Matrona was baptized in the church of the village of Odoleevo. From childhood, she likely heard stories about the blessed Simon of Yuryevets, who gained fame in that area. Typically, events indicating a future blessed one’s calling to foolishness occur in childhood or adolescence, but no such evidence exists for Matrona.
At the age of 17, in 1850, Matrona was married to Ivan Fyodorov Rumyantsev of 18 years. The family lived in the village of Antonovo, her husband’s birthplace. By 1857, they had two sons: Andrey (5 years old) and Ivan (4 years old). During this time, Ivan Rumyantsev was conscripted into military service in 1855. With her husband’s change in social status, Matrona automatically became a soldier’s wife. As a soldier’s wife, she either followed her husband to his place of service or engaged in seasonal work, the latter being more common. It is suggested that Matrona, previously a serf, was freed from serfdom this way.
Ivan returned from service in 1865 and died in 1870, reportedly an unnatural death, possibly due to alcoholism. As a widow with children, Matrona was obliged to either remain with her husband’s family or obtain a passport and seek work. She chose the latter, moving to Kostroma for employment. There, she married a local townsman, Yegor Tikhonovich Mylnikov, and was registered as a townswoman herself. The Mylnikovs likely owned a grocery shop and a house on Sergievskaya Street in Kostroma. This marriage was reportedly a difficult ordeal for her, marked by many sorrows. They had no children. Her second marriage elevated her social status from a peasant widow to a townswoman, distancing her from peasant life.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Egor Mylnikov was drafted into the army. Matrona accompanied him to the combat zone as a nurse. The institution of nursing emerged in Russia in the mid-19th century under European influence but developed under the Orthodox ideals of mercy. This role allowed Matrona to acquire medical skills and earn a wage. She received a salary of 25 rubles, which she reportedly gave to wounded soldiers. Although her name does not appear in the lists of nurses from Kostroma, among the items she gifted to the heir to the throne in 1904 was a commemorative medal from the consecration of a church at Shipka Pass, suggesting she may have volunteered during the war.

### Ascetic Life

During the war, Matrona’s husband died. After the war ended, she sold her property, distributed the money, and took a vow of barefoot wandering. She reportedly visited Jerusalem four times and made dozens of trips to the Solovetsky Islands (her first destination), Valaam, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Sarov Hermitage, and other monasteries. She walked barefoot in all weather, wearing only white summer clothing. Matrona maintained friendly ties with two other well-known wanderers in the Russian Empire, Vasily the Barefoot and Alexander Dyomin.
Her new status were tied to religious asceticism: wandering and foolishness for Christ’s sake. The purpose of a wanderer’s life was to visit holy places on pilgrimage. This status required breaking with one’s former social class, living off alms or earnings, and sleeping in inns, private homes, or outdoors. Wanderers were expected to share stories of their travels and the shrines they visited, and Matrona’s recorded narratives resemble traditional wanderer tales. Foolishness imposed additional obligations as going barefoot, chastity, and disrupting social norms. Her barefoot state symbolized humility and reverence for God in Christianity.
Matrona wandered for about three years before settling in Saint Petersburg in 1881, possibly due to relatives there. Other suggested reasons include her son living in the city and the unique Saint Petersburg mythology and atmosphere, a hub for holy fools, especially women, from the 18th to early 20th centuries. Evidence of her healing and prophetic abilities emerged in the late 1890s, possibly after a long process of self-improvement through prayer and labor. People sought her help with employment and difficult situations.
She was detained by police several times in Saint Petersburg for walking barefoot and petitioned the Holy Synod for official permission to follow her vow. In her petition, she argued that her barefoot state demonstrated God’s mercy by keeping her feet warm in the cold, reinforcing Orthodox values. She initially lived on the Petrograd Side, later on Vasilyevsky Island, regularly attending Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, and eventually resided on Bolshaya Morskaya Street. Matrona gained fame as a counselor in life’s hardships and a healer, receiving up to 500 visitors a day on Mondays and Thursdays. Police reports noted crowds of up to 300 admirers gathering around her. Her popularity alarmed church authorities and police, leading to an investigation. In October 1897, the Spiritual Consistory ordered her parish clergy to monitor her religious beliefs, banning her from receiving visitors or collecting donations for oil and candles. In January 1898, she faced a magistrate for collecting funds without permission but was acquitted.
For the last 14 or 16 years of her life, Matrona lived near the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows at the Imperial Glass Factory beyond the Neva Gate, an industrial area with over 30 factories, poor sanitation, and widespread poverty and alcoholism. Together with Vasily the Barefoot, she raised funds to build a church there in honor of the icon Joy of All Who Sorrow. She also collected money for a church in the village of Feryazkino, Mikulinskaya volost, Staritsky Uyezd, Tver Governorate.

### Death and Burial

Matrona the Barefoot died on 30 March 1911. There were large crowds near her home for days, including people from all walks of life —beggars, factory workers, merchants, officials, and aristocrats— as well as many priests. Major newspapers reported on her death and farewell ceremonies daily. Her body was buried on 4 April 1911 behind the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Neva River bank, attended by over 20,000 people.
Her initial burial included an underground crypt with a slab, covered by a mound adorned with spruce branches and a cross. Later, a wooden chapel with two windows was built over the grave, containing a low tombstone covered with a crimson cloth and a large white wooden cross inscribed: “Here rests the body of God’s servant, the eldress Matryona Petrovna Mylnikova (Matrenushka-bosonozhka), who died on March 30, 1911, at the age of 78. Peace to your ashes”. The chapel walls held many icons from Matrona’s apartment. During the Soviet times, the burial site was leveled and covered with construction debris or industrial waste.

## Personality of Matrona the Barefoot

According to Natalia Mazalova, Doctor of History, Matrona is perceived as a real historical figure, a stereotypical social figure, and a mythological figure, with these three images overlapping, leading to numerous legends about her and a mythologized figure.
She had good health condition throughout most of her life while leading an ascetic lifestyle. A correspondent from the newspaper Gazette of the Saint Petersburg City Administration and Metropolitan Police described her diet as "consisting of a soup she cooked in a small cup and ate over several days, supplemented by soaked bread. She mixed tea and coffee in a teapot to quench her thirst, with prosphora as her only other sustenance".
She reportedly avoided bathing for 30 years, washing only her feet and head. Matrona immediately distributed money received from believers, stating she lived only for God and did not want money found on her after death. Her living quarters were described as a sparse room in a two-story log house, with a soot-covered ceiling and walls, where she slept on an iron bed with rags, illuminated only by altar lamps.
Alexander Plotnikov reported, that rare passersby avoided visiting her, often seeking prayers for life’s misfortunes and illnesses. A lot of them were coming for advice and comfort, donating sums ranging from a few kopecks to 500 rubles, which she gave to the needy or sent as donations to monasteries and poor parishes.
Contemporaries believed she possessed the gift of foresight. Her admirers were mostly poor, though some came from the intelligentsia, middle classes, and high society. She is credited with predicting the fates of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin and Priamursky Governor-General Nikolay Gondatti. In 1910, she reportedly foresaw Russia’s tragic fate, saying, “Seven of my lamps have gone out… Something bad will happen in Russia”.
Accounts of healings attributed to her prayers include curing chronic alcoholics. She typically sprinkled visitors with holy water and blessed them with an icon. Letters arrived from across Russia, sometimes delivered to her in sacks.
A Saint Andrew’s Cathedral's priest noted that some asked her to fortune-tell, but she refused, insisting she was neither a witch nor a fortune-teller, offering only to pray silently with them before icons. She rejected payment for prayers, suggesting donations for lamp oil and candles. She confessed to John of Kronstadt and received communion from him. A photograph captured her with John of Kronstadt during the laying of a merchant’s house foundation in 1906.
Writer and Orthodox publicist Evgeny Poselyanin described a chance encounter with Matrona in his 1916 book In Prayer. In Silence and Storm. He depicted her as a barefoot woman with burning eyes, dressed in white, carrying a large wicker basket and leaning on a heavy, metal-tipped staff. An influential acquaintance once intervened with the police on her behalf. Poselyanin admired her lack of formality and simplicity in conversation, which revolved around the death of a loved one and her bringing orphans to the capital. Passersby reacted to her with curiosity, mockery, pity, or reverence.
Matrona’s foolishness lacked the comedic element of traditional holy fools; instead of condemning worldly vices, she exemplified a moral ideal of sacrifice, resembling a dramatic actress playing an ancient saint. This behavior reflected the Petersburg style of foolishness and the era’s sense of impending catastrophe for the Russian Empire. Poselyanin compared her to the holy fools of Ivan the Terrible’s time, who spoke truth to powerful rulers and rejected societal conventions. He noted that people saw in her a strong spirit, disregard for the flesh, and freedom from earthly constraints, turning to her with their sorrows instead of priests, reflecting a deeper pastoral failing.
Since 1909, Matrona prepared for death, frequently receiving Eucharist and undergoing unction several times in her final two years. An archimandrite at her funeral remarked that her religiosity embodied the simple faith of the Russian people and that she had taken on the spiritual feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake.

## Matrona the Barefoot and the Imperial Family

Documents from the Chancery of Her Imperial Majesty and the Ministry of the Imperial Court indicate that from 1896 until her death, the imperial family accepted gifts from Matrona for religious holidays, including icons, prosphora, lamp oil, and church items. In 1901, an icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker was returned to her due to a 1897 Consistory ruling.
Some claim Matrona was personally introduced to the imperial family and had unrestricted palace access, with Nicholas II and Alexandra Fyodorovna listening to her for hours. Historians have called her a “soothsayer” with significant influence over the family, especially after the departure of another favorite, Frenchman Nizier Anthelme Philippe. Media reports suggest she was among notable holy fools invited to Tsarskoye Selo before Rasputin. However, credible sources indicate Nicholas II’s meetings with spiritual figures were typically one-off and private, such as a single instance when Matrona handed him an icon in Peterhof, according to Anna Vyrubova.
It is claimed that state leaders visited her for conversations, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna held her in special reverence, weeping at her death and sending a wreath to her grave. In a 1904 letter to Nicholas II, Matrona offered a gilded iconostasis and candlestick, requesting permission and land to build an Alexeevsky Jerusalem Podvorye close to the Joy of All Who Sorrow Church to honor the heir’s birth. The Synod rejected her proposal due to unclear funding and lack of approval from the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

## Matrona the Barefoot in Historical Studies and Culture
### In Russian Local History, Journalism, and Historical Science

In 1912, a pamphlet titled The Life of the Reposed Servant of God, Eldress Matrona Petrovna Mylnikova (Matrenushka-Bosonozhka) was published in Saint Petersburg by Alexander Plotnikov, who knew her well and helped organize her funeral. Sergei Trufanov mentioned her in his memoirs about Rasputin, suggesting he could write a book about her if there were interest.
In 2009, Svetlana Devyatova dedicated a chapter to Matrona in Orthodox Ascetic Women of the 20th Century. In 2011, the Holy Trinity Zelenetsky Monastery published Petersburg Eldress Matrenushka-Bosonozhka, combining Plotnikov’s biography with a modern account based on archival and published sources. In 2018 and 2019, Larisa Yurevichene’s the Life of Eldress Matrona Petrovna Mylnikova (Matrona the Barefoot) was released in two editions to support her canonization, drawing on archival materials.
In 2022, Natalya Mazalova published an article in Vestnik Antropologii where she analyzes Matrona’s changing social status and her choice of foolishness, influenced by personal tragedies, widowhood, wartime nursing, and war’s horrors. Mazalova noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the area near Matrona’s grave avoided mass infections, which parishioners attribute to her intercession. Another 2021 article by Mazalova in Medical Anthropology and Bioethics explored the psychophysiological aspects of Matrona’s healings and their performative nature, highlighting the abundance of recorded miracle stories as unique in parish folklore.
Other works include chapters by Natalya Chernykh in Ascetic Women: Holy Women of Our Time (2019), Archimandrit Feofan in Unblessed Blessed Saints (2017), Anna Pecherskaya in Paths of the Blessed (2010), and Yulia Andreeva in Myths of Ghosts: A Guide to Mystical Petersburg (2020). In 2022, a museum opened in the basement of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Church, featuring exhibits on Matrona, including photographs, graphics, and audio stories of her miracles.
* Matrona the Barefoot in the exposition of the temple museum
* Audio devices with stories about Matrona's miracles

### In Photography and Cinema

Photographs of Matrona were taken by prominent photographers like Karl Bulla. In 2010, TV-3 aired a 45-minute documentary, Saints: Three Matronas, covering Matrona the Barefoot, Matrona Anemnyasevskaya [ru], and Matrona of Moscow. That year, ABC Studio released a 13-minute documentary, Petersburg Miracle, about the Joy of All Who Sorrow Church, with a segment on Matrona. In 2016, Neva Gate's Guardian a feature-documentary film about Matrona, premiered as part of a series on uncanonized Petersburg ascetics, airing on the Soyuz channel.

### In Poetry and Music

Wounded soldiers often called nurses of mercy “saints” and “angels”, terms applied to Matrona in Orthodox poetess Liliya Evseeva’s song White Angel: “To the Russian people — rich and poor, she was a sister of mercy in Christ”. This image merges her Christian identity with her nursing role. In January 2020, iconographer Alexander Bolshakov reported a vision of Matrona praying in white before vanishing, leaving barefoot prints in the snow—echoing a poem, Footprints in the Snow, written years earlier by priest Gennady Belovolov.

## Canonization Problems

Metropolitan of Saint Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy emphasized Matrona’s path of foolishness and wandering, noting that miracles attributed to her prayers in modern times support her glorification.
A notable posthumous miracle is the 1963 emergency landing of a plane with faulty engines on the Neva River near her grave, with no harm to passengers or crew; legend claims future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II was aboard. Believers credit her with healings from cancer, exorcisms, and cures for alcoholism, drug addiction, infertility, and leg ailments.
Holy fools, though less common among modern canonized saints, remain highly venerated in Russia, especially by women, with Matrona the Barefoot ranking alongside Matrona of Moscow, Lyubov of Ryazan, and Xenia of Petersburg. Canonization efforts began in 1991, but failed due to insufficient reliable data. Evidence of her Jerusalem visits surfaced in the 1990s via a lithographic icon gifted to her in 1903. Her grave and white metal coffin with sculpted angels were rediscovered in 1995, left undisturbed under a new tombstone, becoming a pilgrimage site.
Since 1995, monks and parishioners have collected miracle testimonies. In 2013, an abbot petitioned for her canonization, but it was deferred due to inadequate materials. A 2015 expedition sought documents in her homeland, addressing discrepancies like her birth year (variously cited as 1814, 1819, or 1833) and unverified claims of her taking the schema as Maria. A working group formed in 2015 gathered archival data, holding conferences in 2016 and 2017. By 2019, documents were prepared for the Synodal Commission on Canonization, with canonization planned to coincide with the restoration of the Sorrowful Church.