Foundation of Diveyevo
Directed by her Kiev elders to travel and to keep her monastic state hidden, Alexandra received two visions of the Most Holy Theotokos. The first, in Kiev, instructed her to journey northward to find a divinely designated place; the second, near the village of Diveyevo, confirmed it as the Mother of God's 'fourth chosen portion' in the world, ranked with Mount Athos, Georgia, and the Kiev Holy Trinity Lavra of the Caves.
She settled first in the nearby village of Osinovka for about three years before relocating to Diveyevo. There, from 1767, she oversaw the building of a church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on the site of the vision; the stone church was consecrated in 1772. She used her inherited wealth to fund the construction of twelve churches in all, among them the Dormition Cathedral at nearby Sarov.
Around the Kazan Church she built the first monastic cells and gathered a small community of ascetics. She established its rule under the guidance of the Sarov elders Pachomius and Hieromonk Isaiah: voluntary poverty, the reception of pilgrims and wanderers, handiwork, and the unceasing Jesus Prayer. By 1788 the community had received official land grants and additional cells were built.
Ascetic Life
Though she came from wealth, Alexandra embraced voluntary poverty in the fullest measure. Sources recall that she cleaned cattle sheds, washed clothes, and wore threadbare garments over a hair-shirt, taking upon herself the most difficult physical labor of the community she led.
Shortly before her death she received the Great Angelic Schema, keeping the name Alexandra. Sensing her end approaching, she entrusted the spiritual care of her sisters to a young hierodeacon then visiting from Sarov — the future St. Seraphim of Sarov — under whom the Diveyevo community would later flourish. She reposed on June 13, 1789.
Relics & Shrines
The relics of Venerable Alexandra, together with those of Schema-nun Martha and Nun Elena, were uncovered on September 26, 2000. They are preserved in the lower church of the Nativity of the Mother of God at the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery.
Alexandra is numbered among the six ascetics canonized as saints of Diveyevo — Alexandra, Martha, Helen, Pelagia, Paraskeva, and Mary — whose relics remain in the convent's churches.
Veneration and Miracles
Historically Documented: St. Seraphim of Sarov held Venerable Alexandra in profound reverence, and after her repose directed pilgrims to visit her grave and ask her prayers, foretelling the later uncovering of her relics and her glorification. Sources record the healing in 1879 of Lieutenant F. N. Sergeyev from an incurable illness through anointing with holy myrrh from her relics, and further healings attributed to her wonderworking icon.
Traditional Accounts: Tradition preserves St. Seraphim's words of veneration — that her clothing bore many patches and that he kissed the prints of her feet — and describes her relics as displaying the skeleton entire, the bones 'like the purest amber.' Witnesses recalled her as of average height, with a round and fair face, grey eyes, and light brown hair in her youth.
Commemoration
Venerable Alexandra's principal feast is June 13, the day of her repose. She is also commemorated on June 14 with the Synaxis of All Saints of Diveyevo, on July 15 with the Synaxis of All Saints of Kiev, and on August 27 with the Synaxis of Saints of Nizhny Novgorod.
