Feodosia Prokopiyevna Morozova (; (); 21 May 1632 – 1 December 1675) was a Russian

noblewoman A noblewoman is a female member of the nobility. Noblewomen form a disparate group, which has evolved over time. Ennoblement of women has traditionally been a rare occurrence; the majority of noblewomen were linked to the nobility by either their ...

and one of the best-known partisans of the

Old Believer Old Believers or Old Ritualists (Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

movement. She was perceived as a martyr after she was arrested and died in prison. She was praised in pamphlets shortly after her death, hailed as a rebel by revolutionaries in the 19th century, and is to this day hailed as a holy martyr by the Old Believers.

Life

She was born on 21 May 1632 into a family of the

okolnichy Okolnichy (, ) was an old Russian court official position. According to the ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary'', directives on the position of ''okolnichy'' date back to the 14th century. Judging by the Muscovite records from the 16th a ...

Prokopy Feodorovich Sokovnin. At the age of 17, she was married to the

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

Gleb Morozov, brother to the tsar's tutor

Boris Morozov Boris Ivanovich Morozov (; 1590 – 1661) was a Russian statesman and boyar who led the Russian government during the early reign of Tsar Alexis. Morozov came from a long noble line, yet was poor before his appointments. Life In 1634, when Tsar ...

, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and brother-in-law of

Tsar Alexis Alexei Mikhailovich (, ; – ), also known as Alexis, was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676. He was the second Russian tsar from the House of Romanov. He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority and his council ...

. Morozova bore one child to Gleb, a son, Ivan. After her husband's early death in 1662, she retained a prominent position at the Russian court as a lady-in-waiting to Tsarina Maria. She also inherited vast wealth, which she administered on behalf of her son Ivan. During the

Raskol The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as (, , meaning 'split' or 'schism'), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in the 1600s. It was triggered by the reforms of Patria ...

, because Archpriest

Avvakum Avvakum Petrov (; 20 November 1620/1621 – 14 April 1682; also spelled Awakum) was a Russian Old Believer and protopope of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square who led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. H ...

was her

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

, Morozova joined the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

' movement and secretly took

monastic vows Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...

with the name Theodora. She played an important role in convincing her sister, Princess Evdokia Urusova, to join the Old Believers. They were also joined by fellow noblewoman Maria Danilova. Following Avvakum, she rejected the reforms of

Patriarch Nikon Nikon (, ), born Nikita Minin (; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from 1652 to 1666. He was renowned for his eloquence, energy, piety and close t ...

insisting he had no authority in the church to alter established practices, identifying such innovations with the corruption of the faith by the

antichrist In Christian eschatology, Antichrist (or in broader eschatology, Anti-Messiah) refers to a kind of entity prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ and falsely substitute themselves as a savior in Christ's place before ...

. After many misfortunes, the two sisters and Danilova were arrested by order of Tsar Alexis in 1671. They were interrogated and tortured over a long period, but refused to recant. Attempts to reach a compromise led by Patriarch Pitirim were also rejected. While she was under arrest, her son Ivan died. Alexis contemplated having Morozova burned at the stake, but was dissuaded. Instead, she and the others were incarcerated in an underground cellar of the St. Paphnutius Monastery at

Borovsk Borovsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Borovsky District of Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Protva River just south from the oblast's border with Moscow Oblast. Population: 12,000 (1969 ...

, where they endured considerable deprivations. After the appointment of a new Patriarch, Ioakim in 1674, they were deprived of all support and slowly starved. All three succumbed to starvation, in 1675, with Morozova dying on November 2.

Reputation

Avvakum wrote a "Lament for the three martyrs". A hagiography, ''Tale of Boiarynia Morozov'', by an unknown author, gave an account of her life as a martyr. The story circulated widely and miracles were attributed to Morozova by Old Believers. Many Old Believer communities continue to venerate her as a martyr. Nevertheless, her reputation was limited until Morozova's role as a representative of Russian identity and tradition became important to nationalist writers in the 19th century. She became a household name after being discussed by important Russian writers and depicted by

Vasily Surikov Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (; 24 January 1848 – 19 March 1916) was a Russian Realism (arts), realist history painter. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illustrations. Biography He was born to an ...

. She was also taken as a heroine by some radical groups, who saw her as a symbol of resistance to state power. The

People's Will Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

revolutionary movement promoted her, and her virtues were praised by writers of the Soviet era such as

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; , . ( – 5 March 1966), better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova,. ...

Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (; 18 June 1907 – 17 January 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 imprisoned in forced-labor camps in the Arctic reg ...

and

Fazil Iskander Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian"There's no doubt I'm a Russian writer who praised Abkhazia a lot. Unfortunately, I haven't written anything in the Abkhaz language. The choice of Russian culture ...

, who "symbolically enlisted her in their own causes of resistance". A chapel was constructed in 2002 on the site of the prison where Morozova died.

References

Sources

;Publications available in English: ;Publications available only in Russian:

External links

Excerpts from Avvakum's correspondence with Morozova
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morozova, Feodosia 1632 births 1675 deaths Old Believer saints 17th-century Christian saints Deaths by starvation Christian female saints of the Early Modern era 17th-century Russian women 17th-century Russian nobility Morozov family (boyar) Monastery prisoners