October 20, 2018 the blessing of his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill at the nursing cemetery pühtitsa Dormition stavropegic convent, the members of the Commission on the finding of the relics of a blissful Staritsa nun Catherine (Malkov-Panina) got the honest remains of the Saint, according to patriarhiei.
The Commission, headed by the Metropolitan of Tallinn and all Estonia Eugene, included: Bishop Victor Artsyz, vicar of the Odessa diocese; hegumeness filareta (Kalacheva), abbess of the pühtitsa monastery; Archpriest Oleg Met, a member of the Synodal Commission on the canonization of saints; N.And. Platonov, archaeologist, doctor of historical Sciences, leading researcher of the Department of Slavonic-Finnish archaeology of Institute of history of material culture RAS (St.-Petersburg), A. V. Zubov, anthropologist, candidate of historical Sciences, senior researcher of the Department of anthropology of the Museum of anthropology and Ethnography Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg); hieromonk Jonah (Tadpoles), the Abbot of the temple Catherine the great Martyr in pärnu; Archpriest Vitaly Gavrilov, rector of the Church of the Narva icon of the Mother of God in the city of Narva.
The uncovering of relics was attended by sisters pühtitsa monastery, the clergy of the Estonian eparchy, the pilgrims.
Currently found the remains of honest specialists are described by archaeologist N. And. The Plato and anthropologist A. V. Zubova, and then they prepare the vestments for the monastic order.
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Catherine Malkov-Panin was born 15 may 1889 in Finland, fortress of Suomenlinna, in the family of a military engineer Vasily Malkov-Panin. The family had six children. From the early years of the future Holy differed kindness and compassion, he loved to visit the Holy abode, near their estates.
Prior to 1900 the family lived in Helsingfors (Helsinki), then moved to Gatchina. In the early twentieth century, Catherine studied at the natural faculty of Bestuzhev’s courses, after which in 1912-1913 he worked in Entomological society. In 1914, Catherine enrolled in a nursing course and at the same time he began working in the free city hospitals, and later worked in the rear hospital, and then transferred to the Sweeney St. George’s community: the sisters of mercy this group assisted wounded soldiers who were taken off the battle field.
After a serious illness she started to work in the Carefree village near St. Petersburg, and in 1919 the family moved to Estonia.
July 5, 1922, Catherine was accepted into the number of nuns pühtitsa monastery. From the first days of his life in the monastery she began to behave strangely at times, to play the mad. Soon she was transferred to the Gethsemane skete, located thirty kilometers from the monastery.
In the beginning of world war II the monastery was abolished, and its nuns returned to the convent. Catherine in 1942 was allowed to go home to care for sick elderly parents, who lived in Tallinn. In the same year she has buried her mother and left to live with his father. In Tallinn Catherine visited the metochion pühtitsa monastery and predicted (almost twenty years) its closure.
In 1947 Catherine buried his father and returned to the monastery, and then began openly to play the fool.
The nuns remembered that she had sometimes put on a particular post, explaining that is going to die, and usually it was to the death of one of the sisters. If told to fast, because preparing for tonsure into the mantle, is meant that there has to be someone’s vows.
Catherine is widely revered by the Orthodox people as who had the gift of clairvoyance and healing. It flocked for advice and prayer of many pilgrims.
In April 1966, the Archbishop of Tallinn and Estonia Alexy in private, in the Abbot chambers pühtitsa convent was made the vows in the robes of novices of the monastery of Catherine leaving the old name.
The last years of his life, the old woman rarely left the house, more lying. If you stood anywhere suddenly appeared, it was a great event and meant that the home should be something significant. The stories of the nuns, mother Catherine were continually devoting themselves to the disease, but outwardly it hasn’t expressed their suffering. In one of the last letters of blessed wrote: “How easy it is to take on the feat and how hard it is to finish…”.
5 may 1968, for the celebration of the Holy myrrh-bearers, mother Catherine peacefully departed to the Lord.
There are many convincing testimonies about the sanctity of the ascetic, and abundant spiritual gifts manifested during her life and after death in an apparent miracles, including healings (some of them confirmed by medical documents).
7 March 2018 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to cast the nun Catherine (Malkov-Panin) to the saints for local veneration in the pühtitsa Dormition stavropegic convent (journal No. 7). The memory of the blessed Catherine, the Holy fool for Christ’s sake, you’re supposed to make April 22 (may 5). 20 March 2018 at the pühtitsa convent of the glorification of the blessed Staritsa Catherine.
Photo: Official website of MP EPTS/