Holy Grand Duchess Anna, daughter of Prince Dimitri Borisovich of Rostov, great–granddaughter of Holy Prince Vasily (Vasilko) Rostov, who was martyred for refusing to betray the holy Orthodox faith. The sister-in-law of the blessed Anna's grandfather was Saint Peter, Tsarevich of the Horde, a baptized Tatar canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1294, the blessed Princess Anna married Prince Mikhail of Tver.
Many sorrows befell St. Anna. In 1294, her father died. In 1296, the Grand ducal tower with all its possessions burned to the ground. Soon after, the young prince became very ill. The firstborn of the grand–ducal couple, the daughter of Theodora, died in infancy. In 1317, a tragic struggle began with Prince Yuri of Moscow. In 1318, the blessed princess says goodbye forever to her husband, who leaves for the Horde, where he was brutally tortured. In 1325, her eldest son, Dimitri the Terrible Eyes, met Prince Yuri of Moscow in the Horde, the culprit of his father's death, killed him, for which he was executed by the khan. A year later, the inhabitants of Tver massacred all the Tatars, led by Khan Uzbek's cousin. After this spontaneous uprising, the entire Tver land was devastated by fire and sword, the inhabitants were exterminated or driven into captivity. The Tver Principality has never experienced such a pogrom. In 1339, her second son Alexander and grandson Theodore died in the Horde: their heads were cut off and their bodies were separated at the joints.
The pious Grand Duchess was prepared for monasticism throughout her previous life. After her husband's death, trials followed one another and it seemed impossible to survive them without giving in to despair, but Anna endured everything. "You had a man's strength in your feminine nature..." – this is how the Church pleases St. Anna of Kashin for her spiritual fortitude. Soon after the martyrdom of her son and grandson, Anna became a monk, first in Tver, and then, at the request of her younger son Vasily, she moved to a monastery specially built for her. Here she passed away on October 15 (October 2, art. In 1368 in the schema, her body was buried in the Assumption Monastery church.
The name of the blessed Princess Anna was forgotten over time. In the "Miracle of the sexton named Gerasim," it is reported that in 1611, the burial of Anna Kashinskaya was found in the Kashinsky Assumption Church. The Assumption Church at that time was badly dilapidated, the church platform collapsed and collapsed; Anna Kashinskaya's coffin, which was under the floor, turned out to be on the surface. However, the residents of the city, not knowing whose burial it was, treated it without proper reverence: they put hats on the coffin and even sat on it. A certain Gerasim, who was seriously ill, served as a sexton in the church. One night Anna Kashinskaya appeared to him, healed him, and said, "Why do you count my tomb for nothing and despise me? Anna Kashinskaya ordered Gerasim to tell the rector of the temple about his appearance and light a candle in front of her coffin at the Uncreated Image of the Savior. After that, numerous miracles and healings began to occur at Anna Kashinskaya's burial (41 miracles were recorded before the saint's glorification).
One of the miracles happened to the relaxed Sofia Gavreneva, who was tonsured a monk with the name Theodosius in the Kashinsky Sretensky monastery. At her request, a moleben was served at the Assumption Church at the tomb of Anna Kashinskaya for the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Litium, after which the nun was healed. Patients from Tver, Uglich, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Novgorod and other places were brought to Kashin.
In 1645, a relative of Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, boyar V. I. Streshnev, visited here. Having learned about the veneration of Anna Kashinskaya, he submitted a petition to the tsar for the glorification of the saint, but in 1647 the tsar died before he could give orders.
Over time, the rumor of miracles from the relics of the blessed Princess Anna reached the pious Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon. On June 25 (June 12, 1650), the relics of the Blessed Anna Kashinskaya were transferred from the wooden Assumption Church to the Cathedral of the Resurrection. At the Council in Moscow, it was decided to open her relics to universal veneration and canonize Princess Anna.
However, soon the Holy Anna Kashinskaya unexpectedly became a symbol of schismatics, and Patriarch Joachim in 1677 suspended the canonization of the saint, forbade the worship of the holy relics of Anna Kashinskaya.
Although the suspension of church veneration of the blessed Princess Anna lasted for 230 years, the grateful national memory preserved a strong faith in the intercession of her heavenly patroness before the Lord. Before marriage, before service, before taking tonsure, before starting school, making some serious decision, not to mention all sorts of troubles, illnesses and sorrows, the faithful went to pray at the tomb of the Blessed Anna.
In 1899-1901, secret preparations began for the restoration of church worship, in particular, the recording of healings and other miracles resumed. In 1908, Nicholas II agreed to the re–canonization, and the following year the Synod declared Anna's memorial day on June 25 (June 12 of the Old Calendar), the anniversary of the transfer of the relics in 1650.
On June 25, 1909, large celebrations were held in Kashin on the occasion of the restoration of veneration of the saint, attended by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Already in 1909, in the city of Grozny, in the area of the Terek Cossacks, a women's community arose in honor of the holy Princess Anna Kashinskaya. In the same year, a church in St. Petersburg was consecrated in honor of Anna Kashinskaya, which became the compound of the Kashinsky Sretensky Monastery (since 1992, the compound of the Vvedeno-Oyatsky monastery), and in 1914, the church of Seraphim of Sarov and Anna Kashinskaya in the new cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.
During the troubled years of the war and revolution, the image of the blessed Princess Anna became even closer and clearer to the Russian people. It was recalled that the blessed Anna, having also accompanied her husband and sons to that dangerous unknown, from which they often did not return, buried and mourned them, and was also forced to flee and hide, while the enemies smashed and burned her land.