Biography

Valentina Puzik as Sister Ignatia

Valentina Ilyinichna Puzik was born in Moscow on the 1st of February 1903. The father, born in a farmer family, died in 1915 by tuberculosis. Thanks to her mother’s efforts, Valentina, overcoming the limits due to her social class, was admitted to the Nikolayevskoye Girls Commercial Institute. In 1920 she applied to the Natural Science Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the State University in Moscow. After the University she started to work in the field of pathomorphology of tuberculosis. She became one of the most talented student of V. G. Shtefkò, a famous scientist, Professor and Director of the research labs on tuberculosis, and later she succeeded to him as a Director in 1945.

In February 1924 she met the Archimandrite Agafon (Lebedev), Superior of the Vysovo-Petrovskiy monastery in Moscow, where he took shelter after the banishment of the monks from the Zosima hermitage, the most famous one in Russia. The spiritual leadership of Father Agafon opened her the unexpected perspective of a religious life, something she ignored completely up to then. She became a parishioner of the Vysovo-Petrovsky monastery and soon a spiritual daughter of Starets Ignatiy.

In 1928 Valentina became secretly a nun under the name of Varsonofia. At the beginning of 1939, after Father Ignatiy’s death during his detention, she took the second level of vows under the name of Ignatia, after Father Ignatiy. Ignatia went on working carrying out her duties as required. The activity as a researcher was lived as a penance for her: it was a basic activity within her monastic work for many years.

In 1940 she discussed her thesis for a second PhD, in 1947 she was appointed Senior Lecturer. In the meanwhile she started her activity as head of the pathomorphology lab of the Central Institute of Scientific Research on Tuberculosis and she run it for 29 years, up to 1974, setting an example both as a personal as well as professional level for many colleagues. In 1974, when she gave up working, she had written more than 200 scientific works in various fields of medicine. Many of these works are acknowledged as essays of great scientific value.

Since the mid-Forties her scientific activity was joined by a literary activity of spiritual nature. In 1945 her first book was published – the Father Ignatiy’ s biography. In 1952 she wrote another book about the community founded by Father Ignatiy. Her later works were written in the years 1970-1980, and many of her best books are still waiting for being published. In the early Eighties Igantia composed some hymns. Part of the Masses composed by her are now commonly used in the Russian Orthodox Church’s liturgy.

Her house in Begovaya Street became object of uninterrupted visits during the last years of her life: foremost scholars, her colleagues included, as well as young students of the Sunday school where she taught, who came to find an inspiration from her deep spiritual experience.

On the 24 April 2003, Holy Thursday, she was granted the maximum level in Orthodox monasticism, the supreme level of ascension. Valentina Puzik died a few months later, in August 2004, at the venerable age of 102 years, 76 of which she lived as a nun.

Background

The Starets tradition during religious persecution

Valentina’s father died in 1915 by tuberculosis, that is the disease she fought against for her lifetime, pushing her to become one of the major worldwide researchers in this field. Valentina crucially supported her mother in taking care of her younger brothers and sisters... Later her mother Yekaterina Sevastyanova, following her daughter’s path, would have taken her vows in turn.

Over the Twenties and Thirties, when Communism showed no sign of weakness and seemed to be endless, the Russian Church was carrying on its activity, despite merciless persecution, the physical elimination of the clergy, the massive atheist propaganda experienced in history ever since. The starets (monks provided with special gifts, especially for spiritual guidance) secretly formed the young believers, developing in this way their vocation to monastery life. This double reality, holiness and secret sacrifice she lived in social upheavals led by forced industrialization process, family disruption, atheism, propaganda and repression, moves our imagination and feeling.

Repression did not stop also in front of one of the most famous Russian monastery, the Vysoko-Petrovskiy monastery, a holy site for all Russians. The starets living in there were persecuted and banished.

This was just a fake victory because the brotherhood started to secretly ordain more and more friars and sisters, unknown even to most of the believers. These people kept on doing a lay life, a “soviet” life, working or studying, as a kind of monastic obedience. At the same time, under the starets’ guidance, they developed and cultivated a deep spiritual life.

In this way the Vysoko Petrovskiy monastery became an “Hermitage in the capital city”, as defined by Sister Ignatia herself. In 1928 Valentina Puzik became secretly a first grade nun, giving her religious vows to Ignatiy, her spiritual father. At the beginning of 1939, when father Ignatiy was already dead during his imprisonment, she became a second grade nun (in the orthodox ritual this second vow leads to a so called “nun with mantle”). Valentina chose Ignatia as a new name in memory of the starets who introduced her to the monastery life. With the approval of her new spiritual father, Sister Ignatia kept on carrying out her activity as a researcher. In 1940 she discussed her MSc thesis, in 1947 she became Professor.

She wrote more than 200 scientific reports in various fields of medicine. Many of these works were considered excellent scientific works. She created an innovative school on pathology and tuberculosis. Since the mid Forties her scientific research was put beside by literary works of highly spiritual content. She wrote more than 30 works in this field, including starets Ignaty’s biography, a fundamental step for his canonisation.

Since the Eighties Sister Ignatia has committed herself to hymns composing. Some of them are now usual hymns used in the Orthodox Russian Church.

On 24 April 2003, the holy Thursday, Sister Ignatia became a nun of highest grade, keeping her own name.