The Chapel St. Xenia
Built in 1900 - 02 to Alexander Vseslavin's design over the
burial place of Xenia Grigoryevna Petrova (1718 - c. 1792). According
to tradition, the Blessed Xenia, who had early lost her husband,
a singer of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna's court choir, dispensed
her belongings to the poor, put on her late husband's clothes
taking his name, Andrei Fiodorovich, and became a devout hermit.
In the daytime she wandered around the city and during the night
she used to kneel in a remote field giving herself to prayers.
She led the life of a wanderer for 45 years. St Xenia had the
gift of prophecy and healing. A tombstone put over her burial
place at the Smolenskoye Orthodox Cemetery reads: "Those
who knew me, would you pray for my soul to save yours."
The images of St.Xenia the Blessed, always revered by the inhabitants
of St.Petersburg, gathered to her tomb people of various social
positions who prayed there begging her for help in their misfortunes,
illnesses and various ordeals. In September 1940 the chapel was
closed. However, at believers' numerous requests it was returned
to the Church in 1947, yet closed in 1960 once again, and has
been eventually given back only in 1983. Xenia the Blessed was
canonised in 1988.
