Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna was born in the early 19th century in Tambov province, into a peasant family of serfs. From a young age, she was distinguished by a meek, silent disposition and a special penchant for spiritual life. Her parents and gentlemen married her to a peasant named Fedor. She lived quietly, in obedience and toil, avoiding village amusements. There were no children in the marriage, and fifteen years later the spouse died.
After her husband's death, Irina refused to remarry, despite the landowners' attempts to arrange her fate. She was saying: "Kill me, but I won't get married!" After being falsely accused of theft and brutally beaten by soldiers on the orders of the bailiff, she was miraculously acquitted – the stolen canvases were found in the river. But the suffering she suffered prompted her to leave the gentlemen and go to Kiev on a pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage was a turning point: the shrines of Kiev and communion with the elders were enough for Irina to feel a calling to Christ in her heart. Her soul longed for solitude and achievement. But soon the police found the fugitive and sent her back to the landlords. The road was painful – cold, hunger, bullying. The Schmidts, realizing their guilt, forgave her and made her a gardener. But soon she fled to Kiev again. The second escape led to a new arrest. This time, the gentlemen put her out on the street without food or clothes. But Irina had already been tonsured with the name Paraskeva and knew that her true path was the path of heroic deeds for Christ's sake.
From that time on, her many years of foolishness began. For a while she lived in villages where she was considered insane: she lived in the open air, wandered barefoot, suffered beatings and ridicule. Then she retired to the Sarov forests, where she lived in caves she had dug herself for more than twenty years. She was often seen at the Sarov mill, where she worked. Dressed in a simple monk's shirt, blackened by the sun, with her hair cut short, she resembled Saint Mary of Egypt.
Later, the blessed one settled in the Diveevo monastery. Here she continued her feat: she lived in poverty, rarely slept, hardly ate, prayed at night, often with dolls in her arms—"children," as she called them. Through the image of foolishness, she denounced pride, deceit, and called for repentance. Ordinary people and the clergy came to her for advice.
She possessed foresight: she predicted the death of many nuns, spoke figuratively and metaphorically, pointing to the spiritual essence of what was happening. Belts and rosaries, spun with prayer, came out of her hands — especially revered in the monastery. She called them "knitting stockings," a symbol of the Jesus prayer.
Praskovya Ivanovna deeply revered St. Seraphim of Sarov. When the issue of his glorification faced resistance in the Synod, she fasted for 14 days and indicated the place of the relics. When the relics were opened in 1903, an unusual glow was seen in the village of Lomasov, a sign of heavenly joy.
Emperor Nicholas II himself visited her. She accepted him not as a king, but as a simple pilgrim. She presented him with a bundle of goodies, and she asked for money for a "hut", like a true beggar of Christ. She blessed him and his family, and the boy doll she laid in her cell was considered a prophecy of the birth of Tsarevich Alexei.
The blessed one spent the last years of her life in silence. She was visited only by a select few, and she rarely left her cell. The end of her earthly journey was accompanied by severe suffering. Before her death, she bowed to the ground in front of the portrait of the emperor and said that he was "above all kings." She died on October 5, 1915. The sisters of the monastery believed that with her sufferings she begged for the souls of her spiritual children and fulfilled everything that was pleasing to God.