N Romanov

L Shlionskaya

Leonid Belyaev

The article analyses the materials pertaining to the memorial inscriptions and the grave of Elena Devochkina, the fi rst hegumeness of the Novodevichiy Convent in Moscow (Vassily III, father of Ivan the Terrible, founded the Convent in 1525 to confi ne there Solomonia Saburova whom he had divorced). The hegumeness passed away in 1547, but her gravestone, found in 1989, dates to the 17th c. The gravestone was discovered together with that of nun Theophania (died 1611). Both the stones were objects of veneration as early as the 17th – 18th cc., since hegumeness Elena was revered as a local saint. Analysis has shown that her grave could indeed be located in the vicinity of the stones. The article quotes the data collected in the beginning of the 18th c. by the commissions authorized to counteract the worship of the local saints unless they were offi cially canonized.