Venerable Manefa of Gomel

Maria Vladimirovna Skopicheva was born on 1 April 1918 in Sevruki near Gomel. She had cerebral palsy from birth and could not walk, yet she learned to sew, helped her mother and loved prayer. Invited by Abbess Polyxenia of the Chenki Tikhvin Convent, she took monastic vows with the name Manefa on the feast of the Transfiguration; later she was tonsured into the great schema by Schema-Abbot Makary, one of the last Optina elders.

After the convent was closed she lived as a nun in her family home in Sevruki, receiving many lay people and clergy who came for counsel and prayer. She urged them to repentance, prayer and mercy and especially venerated the icon of the Mother of God 'Seeker of the Perishing'. She died on 25 February 1984.

Her relics were uncovered on 11 August 2006, and on 11 August 2007 she was glorified as a locally venerated saint in the Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral in Gomel, where her relics now rest. Feast: 29 July (11 August), and in the Synaxis of Belarusian Saints.