Venerable Martyr
Venerable Martyr Helen (Korobkova)
1879 — 7 июня 1938
Also known as: Прмц. Елена (1938), Елена (Коробова), Елизавета Коробкова, монахиня Елена (Коробкова)
A nun from Moscow province who, after her convent was closed, sang in a church choir at Skhodnya; arrested in 1937, she died in custody on 7 June 1938.
The Venerable Martyr Helen (Elizaveta Korobkova) was born in 1879 in the village of Maleevo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow province, into a peasant family. At twenty-four she entered a convent in Moscow province, where she took monastic vows with the name Helen, and remained there until the convent was closed under Soviet rule. Afterwards she lived at the Trinity Church in Skhodnya near Moscow, singing in the choir and earning her living by sewing quilts.
On 29 October 1937 she was arrested together with a group of parishioners, accused of distributing religious leaflets among believers and of being "counter-revolutionary". She denied any anti-Soviet activity. Moved to Taganka prison in Moscow, she was sentenced on 15 November 1937 by an NKVD troika to ten years in a labour camp. She died in custody on 7 June 1938 and was buried in an unknown grave.
She is commemorated on 25 May (7 June New Style) and with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.