Background
Maria, Mother was born on December 8, 1891 in Riga.
Maria, Mother was born on December 8, 1891 in Riga.
In youth, combined interests in literature (mentioned by Blok in his poems), revolution (member of the SR Party) and religion (the first woman to graduate from Petersburg Theological Academy). In 1917, during the revolution, elected mayor of the town of Anapa, Crimea. Arrested by the Bolsheviks, but escaped in 1920 to Constantinople.
Settled in Paris. Became involved in social and charity work. Nun from 1932. Defended her own position of active Christianity, organized hostels for destitute and mentally-handicapped Russian refugees. During World War II, hid Jews during the German occupation of France.
Betrayed, arrested by the Gestapo (along with her son Y. Skobtsov and Rev. Klepinin, who were helping her in this work), 9 February 1943. Sent to Ravensbriick concentration camp where she died in the gas chambers a few months before the Liberation volunteering to take the place of another prisoner.
In the 1960s, discovered by Soviet journalists and immediately adopted by the authorities as a Soviet patriot and partisan. Articles and books about her were published and a film was made about her in the Soviet Union, which gave a very slanted version of her life story.