Early Life & Family Background

The greatest feat of the righteous Juliana, in its humble beauty, shows how deeply the Gospel could enter a conscience and transform the life of a medieval Russian person. Juliana was not canonized until recent times; contemporaries were not struck by her astonishing life, perhaps because it was not unparalleled. The image of Saint Juliana should cast a bright ray on any overly gloomy picture of 17th‑century Moscow.”

Righteous Juliana (in church spelling Iuliana, in folk pronunciation Ulyanya or Ulyana) was born at the beginning of Ivan the Terrible’s reign (around 1533) in the town of Murom, to locksmith Ustin Nedyurev and his wife Stephanida. At six years old she became an orphan. She was taken under the care of her maternal grandmother, the widow Anastasia Nikiforovna Dubenskaya. After six years of upbringing, the grandmother died. By Anastasia’s will, the orphan was taken in by her aunt, Natalia Putilovna Arapova. The girl revered her aunt and her cousins, yet she repeatedly endured their scolding and mockery.

She was described as “from youth gentle and silent, unassuming (‑‑ author’s note), and modest; from laughter and all kinds of play she withdrew,” and she was very diligent in spinning and embroidery, “so that her lamp never went out at night.” Her family was fairly wealthy, allowing her to work not for daily bread but to support orphans and infirm widows living in the same village. Juliana showed particular piety, although in her maiden years she rarely attended church, explained by the absence of a nearby parish church.

Marriage & Household Responsibilities

At sixteen she was married to Georgy Osoryin (Osorgin), “a virtuous and wealthy husband.” Juliana moved to her husband’s estate in the village of Lazarevskoye, four versts from Murom. Seeing her virtue and household skill, her father‑in‑law entrusted her with managing the entire household. She also honored her husband’s parents and obeyed their will in everything.

Meanwhile her husband, as was customary then, was seldom at home, spending most of his time on military service—mainly in Astrakhan—for a year, two, or even three years at a stretch. His wife led a devout and righteous life. “At those times she spent all nights sleepless, in prayer and needlework: spinning and embroidery. She sold what she had produced, gave the proceeds to the poor, and contributed to church building. At night she often distributed alms secretly, and by day she managed the domestic affairs.” (Juliana could not dispose of the family property, so she gave away only what she earned with her own hands.)

 Charitable Work

Charity and generosity were the chief virtues of the righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya. She practiced almsgiving during her parents‑in‑law’s lives, after their death, and after her husband’s death when she became the head of the household. When famine began in the country (still during Ivan the Terrible’s reign), Juliana fed the hungry, doing so covertly: she took extra bread from her mother‑in‑law under the pretense of needing it for herself (explaining that after childbirth she was weakened and could not eat enough), and gave it all to the starving. During a terrible plague, when most rich households closed their doors for fear of infection, Juliana did not shy away from treating the sick: she washed them by hand in the bathhouse, buried the dead at her own expense, and ordered forty‑kopek payments for each burial.

Juliana also cared for her servants, fulfilling her Christian duty as a lady of the manor. She accepted no personal services from them: she did not allow them to remove her shoes or bring water, but did everything herself.

She spent many years with her husband. Like most women of her era, she bore numerous children, but domestic happiness eluded her. The children often quarreled; Juliana struggled to reconcile them, with limited success. A servant in her house killed her eldest son; another son later died in royal service. Juliana begged her husband to let her enter a monastery, wishing to take monastic vows, but he refused. By mutual agreement the couple decided to live together without sexual relations. The righteous woman laid a plain bed for her husband, sleeping separately on the stove without any padding; imitating ascetic monks, she sometimes spent nights almost without sleep or placed logs and sharp iron keys beneath her body to prevent comfort and prolonged rest. At night, while everyone else slept, she often prayed, and in the morning she went to church for the early service, leading an exclusively God‑pleasing life.

After her husband’s death, Juliana continued her deeds. The property passed to the children, while the widow gave almost all her share to the poor. Often without a single kopek, she borrowed money from her own children, ostensibly for winter clothing, and donated everything to the needy. Her life grew ever more monastic. Her saintly son reported that she constantly held a rosary and recited the Jesus Prayer, even whispering the prayer in her sleep.

The Great Famine of 1601‑1603

“But Juliana’s life feat is a feat of love,” writes G. P. Fedotov, “and only at death does she give her full measure.” In 1601‑1603 a monstrous three‑year famine struck Russian lands, one of the worst in history. Sudden frosts destroyed all grain, and the disaster repeated the next year. Crops failed for three consecutive years; starting in autumn 1601 the famine reached catastrophic proportions. Chronicles and foreign observers note that people ate grass, tree bark, and hay; there were numerous cases of cannibalism. Deaths numbered tens of thousands across the country.

The famine also hit the Murom region. Juliana sold all her cattle, clothing, and utensils to feed her servants, yet continued to give alms, sharing the last of her household’s provisions with the poor. She fell into extreme poverty and was forced to move to her Nizhny Novgorod estate. Juliana released all her servants because she could no longer feed them; some, however, stayed with their mistress. At her request they gathered swan meat and birch bark, from which Juliana baked bread that she ate herself with her children and servants, and gave the remainder to the poor; “her prayers made the bread sweet.” The number of the poor kept growing; neighbors marveled that they kept coming to the Osoryin house: “Why do you come to Ulyana’s house? She herself is dying of hunger.” The poor replied that they had never tasted such sweet bread before. “Thus she endured two years of destitution without complaint, without reproach, without sinning even in thought, and without raging against God. She did not weaken from poverty, but remained more cheerful than before.”

Death, Burial, & the Chapel Over Her Grave

In late December 1603 the righteous woman fell ill. She lay sick for six days and on the morning of 2 January 1604 received communion, summoned her children and servants, bade farewell, and that same day passed away. Her body was taken to the Murom estate, the village of Lazarevskoye, and buried on 10 January near the church of Saint Lazar, beside her husband’s grave. Later a heated chapel was erected over her tomb in the name of Archangel Michael; the furnace was placed directly above the saint’s grave.

Discovery of Incorrupt Relics & Miracles

The recognition of Juliana’s sanctity occurred in a very ordinary, even unexpected way for her relatives. Eleven years after her death, on 8 August 1615, her son George died. While digging his grave, workers in the passage between the church and the furnace struck a coffin. It was intact and undamaged.

No one initially knew whose coffin it was. Women present at the burial opened it and saw it filled with fragrant myrrh. Juliana’s relatives, as narrated by her son Druzina, dared not examine the relics, but they scooped a small vessel of myrrh and took it to Murom’s cathedral church. That same day many heard a bell ring as if there were a fire, though no one rang it. Then miraculous healings began from the myrrh; when the myrrh was divided, dust (pest) fell from the coffin as if sand. People collected this dust, rubbed it on themselves, and obtained relief from illnesses. “We dared not write about this,” concludes Druzina Osoryin, “because there was no ecclesiastical testimony of the miraculous relics.”

 Later Commemoration

Miracles continued at the Lazarevskaya church. The saint healed petitioners of ulcers, unbearable toothache, blindness, and madness, but most frequently fever. Thus the local veneration of the righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya (or Murovskaya) began.

An official solemn canonization never occurred, but in 1903 her name was entered into the monthly commemorations. “The veneration of Saint Juliana,” wrote G. P. Fedotov in 1931, “is growing today thanks to the literary spread of her life story, popularized by many Russian writers. Juliana Lazarevskaya is a saint chiefly of the Orthodox intelligentsia. In her one finds the traditional folk‑love and the pathos of social service. Although Juliana underwent severe asceticism and dreamed of monastic life, external reasons prevented her from taking vows. She remained faithful to her personal Christian vocation of serving the world and active Christian love.”