On August 18, the church remembers the holy martyrs Eudoxia, Daria, Daria, and Maria who labored as ascetics sixteen km from the village of Diveyevo in the village of Strakhovo Puzo (known as Suvorovo today) at the end of 19^thand the beginning of the 20^th century. 

Blessed Eudoxia’s life is replete with wonders as she chose to follow in the footsteps of early Christian saints. The Lord bestowed her with the gifts of clairvoyance and healing honoring herself and her cell women with the blessed martyrs’ death. The God-pleasing women were tortured and died for their Christian faith on August 18, 1919. 

In 2001, the Bishop’s Council of the Russian Orthodox Church glorified them as martyr saints, whereas their relics were uncovered on June 5, 2001, and enshrined at the Church of Dormition of the Mother of God in Suvorovo. 

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the martyrs’ death. Before the feast, the church in Suvorovo had gone trough restoration. The façade was renewed; new roofing was installed above its central part with the domes repainted. The church stands snow-white and adorned with green domes. The interior walls were painted throughout the church as well as the floor finishing and cosmetic repairs done in the so-called “winter” or heated part of the church.  Additionally, new carved wooden canopies were installed above the holy martyrs’ tombs. 

On the feast day, Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas celebrated the Vigil service and the Divine Liturgy before the Puzo martyrs’ relics. Metropolitan Mitrofan of Murmansk and Monchegorsk, and Bishop Elijah of Balakhna and Filaret of Dalnekonskantinovsk, the Vicars of the Nizhny Novgorod’s Diocese, concelebrated. 

Hegumenia Sergiya, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery prayed at the festive services in Suvorovo. 

Metropolitan Georgiy congratulated the congregation gathered inside the Dormition Church with the day of remembrance of the holy ascetics. In his sermon, His Eminence spoke about the fight between good and evil. He pointed out that the ascetics perished neither in the hands of a foreign aggressor nor non-Christians. They suffered in the hands of fellow Russian people; the adherents of the same faith who let the devil take rein of their hearts and the hell settle in their souls. “Each of us should be on guard about what they feel,” said the ruling hierarch. “We come to the holy relics of the martyrs in Puzo seeking their intercessions to keep our hearts pure, contrite and meek.” 

In 2001, Metropolitan Mitrofan, while still a Hyeromonk, took part in the ceremony of adornment of the relics of Puzo saints in new garments and internment at the Dormition Cathedral for veneration. He also had the honor to carry the tomb with the saint Eudoxia’s relics. Eleven years later on the same day, he was consecrated a bishop. That was when the prophecy of blessed Maria Ivanovna had been fulfilled. She said that Dunya’s (endearing for “Eudoxia.” –tr.) relics would be carried by four bishops with four tombs in total. She prophesied that the thousands of people will gather, there will be weeping and the non-believers will believe. Metropolitan Mitrofan shared this story in his hierarchical address after the evening service. 

The holy martyrs Eudoxia, Daria, Daria, and Maria are included in the Synaxis of the Diveyevo saints. The Kazan Cathedral has a side altar dedicated to them. On the day of patronal feast every year, the chapel dedicated to the Puzo martyrs holds the Divine Liturgy and the Small Supplicatory Canon for the Mother of God traditionally preceded by the blessing of water.