Saint Elena Diveevskai͡a

Helena of Diveyevo, born Elena Vasilyevna Manturova, was an Orthodox Christian monastic saint. She came from a noble family. At the age of seventeen, having previously been a person of little religious faith, she experienced a sudden conversion and made a private vow to the Mother of God to renounce marriage and enter a monastery. She became a spiritual disciple of the later saint, the monk Seraphim of Sarov, who only granted her his blessing to enter the Diveyevo Monastery and take the vows of a rassophore nun after three years. The monk, who oversaw the monastery, suggested several times that Helena take perpetual vows and become the community's superior, but she refused. She accepted only the role of sacristan, the nun responsible for the monastery's liturgical vestments. In 1823, Helena's brother, Mikhail, who was also under the spiritual guidance of Seraphim, fell gravely ill. The monk approached Helena and told her that she could offer her life in exchange for her brother's. He promised her that upon her death, she would go straight to heaven. Helena asked for his blessing and suddenly fell ill within a few hours. During this time, she reportedly experienced visions of the Mother of God and saw heaven. After a few days, Helena died, and her brother was healed. During the nun's funeral, Seraphim urged the other sisters not to mourn her, but to rejoice that she had been saved; he claimed to have had a vision in which the soul of the deceased ascended to heaven, welcomed by cherubim and seraphim.