Venerable Martyr Olimpiada (Verbetskaya) of Kozelshchyna

IMPORTANT CATEGORY CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "venerable" to "venerable martyr" — Abbess Olimpiada's sanctity is tied specifically to her execution for the faith under Soviet rule, not a peaceful ascetic repose, which is what places her among the venerable martyrs rather than the venerable.

HONEST NOTE ON IDENTIFICATION: the name "Verbetskaya" (given in the original data as "Verbitskaya") corresponds to this, the most likely identity; an alternative hypothesis — Venerable Olimpiada of Arzamas and Kiev (Strigaleva, 1771–1828) — was also checked, but she does not bear the surname "Verbetskaya" and does not match the card's name, so was rejected.

Olimpiada Konstantinovna Verbetskaya (baptized Elena) was born in 1875 in the Verbetsky khutor, Kobelyaky district, Poltava province. She entered Kozelshchyna Convent (sources vary between 1893 and 1904), was tonsured a nun under the name Olimpiada on May 17, 1915, by Bishop Feofan (Bystrov) of Poltava, and was elevated to abbess on March 2, 1916. She led the convent until its closure by the Soviet authorities in 1929, during which, tradition holds, she managed to smuggle out and hide the wonderworking Kozelshchyna Icon of the Mother of God.

She was arrested during Great Lent, on March 18, 1938; she was shot in a mass execution on June 2, 1938; her burial site is unknown. She was legally rehabilitated by the Poltava regional prosecutor's office on June 22, 1990, for lack of any crime. She is venerated locally in the Poltava (and, per some sources, Kherson) dioceses; an akathist to "Venerable Martyr Olimpiada of Kozelshchyna" has been composed, attesting to genuine liturgical veneration, though a formal Synodal act of church-wide glorification could not be found.

Her feast is kept on June 2 (day of execution).