Venerable Martyr Barbara (Yakovleva) of Alapaevsk

IMPORTANT CATEGORY AND DATE CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "martyr" to "venerable martyr" — Barbara was a nun of the Martha and Mary Convent. The previously listed date "December 4/17" was not confirmed — replaced with the correct date of the Alapaevsk execution, matching Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna's date.

Barbara Alekseevna Yakovleva was awarded a Red Cross medal in 1906 for nursing wounded soldiers (1904–1908). Around 1910 she became one of the first sisters of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in Moscow (founded 1909) and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna's personal cell-attendant.

When Elizabeth Feodorovna was arrested by the Cheka on May 7, 1918, Barbara begged to share her exile, although she had the chance to remain safe. The group was transported to Alapaevsk on May 20, 1918, and held in a former school building. On the night of July 5/18, 1918, the prisoners were taken to the disused Nizhnyaya Selimskaya mine shaft, beaten, and thrown alive into the roughly 60-meter shaft, which was then covered with earth and grenades.

She was first glorified by ROCOR on November 14, 1981; in 1992 she was glorified by the Moscow Patriarchate (by decision of the Moscow Diocesan Assembly) together with Grand Duchess Elizabeth; also included in the general Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (Jubilee Council, 2000). Her relics rest in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane (Jerusalem), where they were transferred in 1981–1982.

Her feast is kept on July 5/18.