diveyevo 3

Agafia Semyonovna followed the advice of the holy Sarov elders... 

and settled in the nearby village of Osinovka with Mrs. Zevakina. 

Here, the mother's ten-year-old daughter soon fell ill and died. 

She saw in the death of her only daughter another indication of God...

and a confirmation of everything proclaimed to her by the Queen of Heaven. 

The last link that connected her with the world was broken.

Then, Agafia Semyonovna... 

with the blessing of the Sarov elders...

decided to really renounce all her property and finally dispose of her estates. 

To do this, she left Osinovka and Sarov and went to her estates. It took her a lot of time to arrange things. Having set her peasants free for a small payment, and selling those who did not want freedom for a similar and inexpensive price to those good landowners whom they had chosen for themselves, she completely freed herself from all earthly worries, and significantly increased her already large capital. 

Then she put part of the capital in contributions to monasteries and churches to commemorate her parents, daughter and relatives, and, most importantly, hastened to help where it was necessary to build or renew the temples of God. 

She provided for many orphans, widows, the poor and those who needed Christ's help. Her contemporaries indicate 12 churches built and restored. Among them the Assumption Cathedral [blown up in 1951] of the Sarov Hermitage, which Mother helped to complete with significant capital.

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Probably, her return to Diveyevo...

took place around 1764-66. 

The Sarov elders blessed her to settle with the parish priest of Diveyevo, Father Vasily Dertev, who lived alone with his wife, known for their spiritual life, with whom she had already become acquainted during her stay in the village of Osinovka.

Thus, Agafia Semyonovna built herself a cell in the courtyard of the Diveyevo priest, and lived in it for 20 years, completely forgetting her origin and gentle upbringing. 

In her humility, she practiced the most difficult and menial [ondergeschikte] jobs, cleaning the barn of Father Vasily, walking after his cattle, washing linen...

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The appearance of mother Alexandra... 

is known from the words of her novice, Evdokia Martynovna: 

Agafia Semyonovna’s clothes were not only simple and poor, but also many-tailored, and at the same time the same in winter and summer. On her head, she wore a cold, black, round woolen cap trimmed with hare fur, because she often suffered from headaches... She went to field work in bast shoes, and at the end of her life, went already in cold boots...¨ 

[bron]