Case file · Apparition / miracle
Xenia of St Petersburg and the miracles at her grave
Xenia, a widow who gave away her goods and wandered St Petersburg in her dead husband's uniform as a holy fool, died around 1803; people soon reported healings and help at her grave in the Smolensky cemetery.
1803 CE · 59.95, 30.25 · status: legend
The account
Stories say she secretly carried bricks at night to help build the cemetery church and foretold the death of Empress Elizabeth. Her chapel became a place where visitors leave notes with requests. She was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1978 and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1988.
The sceptical view
Almost nothing about her life is documented; her biography was assembled from oral tradition in the 19th century.