Blessed Evdokia...
was born in 1856 in the village of Puza...
now the village of Suvorovo, in the Diveevsky district...
in a peasant family of Alexander and Alexandra Sheikov.
From childhood on, she was ´out of this world´: quiet, in poor health, who did not like noisy games and fun... As a child, she had only one girlfriend - Maria, but she soon died.
After that, Dunya often began to go to the local Ascension Church to pray. But because of her weakness, she was unable to attend [orthodox, standing] services for a long time, so she knelt in the church and prayed throughout the service.
She always walked with a stick, and baptised everything around her with it. She wore only dark clothes and tied a scarf so that her face was barely visible.
Despite her physical weakness...
Dunya tried to help her relatives in the farming economy, but soon she fell ill.
Even in her teens, the Lord gave her the gift of clairvoyance for her chaste, pious life. At first, the relatives did not pay attention to Dunya's words, but then they noticed that everything turned out exactly as the girl said.
When it became clear that Dunya would no longer be able to walk, her relatives made a bench out of planks in her parents' hut, put foot cloths on it, and put a winter coat under her head. Here she lay.
Two young peasant women began to care for the young woman. And she also had a spiritual mentor - an astute [scherpzinnige] elder from Sarov, Hieromonk Anatoly.
Afflicted with illness, Dunya began to lead a strict ascetic life.
She devoted most of her time to prayer.
She prayed with her assistants from five in the morning until twelve in the afternoon, with a twenty-minute rest. The girls sang troparia and kontakia to the Queen of Heaven and the saints, read the Psalter, the Holy Gospel, canons and akathists. During prayer, everyone offered obeisances. In the evening, from eight o'clock to midnight, they offered a personal prayer.
Their house was small and dilapidated [vervallen], with only two windows in front. Dunya lay by the third side window. The stove in the hut often fell apart before their eyes, and in winter it was very cold. Her companions were sometimes so tired of the long prayers and household chores, that they fell to the ground and slept, despite the cold.
Remembering the Savior's suffering for sinful people, Dunya also took upon herself her heavy cross of constant sufferings. She didn't wash in the bathhouse, she didn't allow herself to change clothes until the shirt was completely rotten. She put pieces of bread on her bed, which then dried up into crackers, which clung painfully to her body. In addition, in her modest home, there were a large number of lice and cockroaches...
[bron]
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