Pelagia Ivanovna was born in 1809 in Arzamas, grew up in the house of a stern stepfather. According to the mother’s stories, she was strange from childhood on, and her mother quickly tried to marry a “fool”. Two sons and a daughter of Pelagia Ivanovna died in infancy. When the young couple visited the prep. Seraphim in Sarov, he talked with Pelagia for a long time, gave her a rosary and said: "Go, mother, immediately to my monastery, save my orphans, and you will be the light of the world." After that, every day she seemed to increasingly lose her mind: she began to run through the streets of Arzamas, screaming ugly, and at night she prayed on the church porch. The husband did not understand her feat, beat her and scoffed, chained. Once, at his request, the mayor severely punished Pelagia Ivanovna, her mother said: “Her body hung in shreds, blood flooded the whole room, and she at least gasped.” After this, the mayor saw in a dream a cauldron with terrible fire, prepared for him for torturing the chosen slave of Christ.
After many years of suffering, relatives finally released the blessed one in Diveevo. Here for the first time she continued to go crazy: she ran around the monastery, threw stones, beat windows in her cells, caused everyone to insult herself and beat him. She became feet on the nails, piercing them through and through, and in every possible way tortured her body. I ate only bread and water. For many years, until old age, she went "to her job" - threw bricks into a hole with dirty water. He throws everything over, then he climbs out and pulls out again.
During the time of trouble in the monastery, the blessed one fought for the truth in her own way - no matter what came to hand, she beat and pounded, and even, having exposed the bishop, hit him on the cheek. After the end of the troubles, the blessed one changed, fell in love with flowers and began to deal with them. Abbess Maria did nothing without her advice. Pelagia Ivanovna called everyone in the monastery her daughters, and she was everyone a true spiritual mother. Many tales of instances of her vision were preserved. After living 45 years in the monastery, the blessed one died on January 30 / February 11, 1884. Nine days her body stood in a stuffy temple without the slightest change with a large crowd of people. Although it was winter, it was showered from head to toe with fresh flowers, which were constantly dismantled and replaced with new ones.
On July 31, 2004, the blessed old woman Pelagia Diveevskaya was glorified in the face of the locally revered saints of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. In October 2004, the Council of Bishops made a decision on its veneration of the whole church. The holy relics of the blessed Pelagia, acquired in September 2004, were laid for worship in the Kazan Church of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery.
