Maria Skobtsova was born to a well to do family in 1891. She was given the name Elizaveta, known as Liza to her family. In 1906, after the death of her father, her mother took the family to St. Petersburg, where she became involved in radical intellectual circles. After her divorce from her first husband, she was drawn to Christianity. She married her second husband, Daniel Skobtsov, and they emigrated to Paris in 1923. Three years later, her youngest child died, and she separated from her second husband. After this, Liza began to work more directly with those who were in need.

In 1932, Liza’s bishop encouraged her to take vows as a nun, which she did taking the name, Maria. She realized that Christian asceticism was not primarily about self-mortification and the cloistered life, but responding with love to the needs of others while trying to create better social structures. She could often be found sitting along the Boulevard Montparnasse, in front of a café, with a glass of beer, smoking cigarettes, and talking with simple workers in full monastic robes. Maria made a rented house in Paris her “convent.” It was a place with an open door for refugees, the needy and the lonely. It also soon became a center for intellectual and theological discussion. For Maria, these two elements—service to the poor and theology—went hand-in-hand.

When the Nazis took Paris in 1940, Maria began to provide a safe haven for Jewish Parisians. Many came to her hoping to receive baptismal certificates, which they believed would prevent their deportation. Her chaplain, Father Dimitri, gladly provided them. As the occupation became more dangerous, the community hid more Jewish people, providing shelter and helping many to escape. Eventually, this work of the community was discovered by the Gestapo. Maria, her son Yuri, her mother Sophia, and Dmitri Klepinin were all taken into custody.

Maria was sent to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück, Germany. While imprisoned, she encouraged the other inmates. Her faith was strengthened by her claim that “each person is the very icon of God incarnate in the world.” With this recognition came the need “to accept this awesome revelation of God unconditionally, to venerate the image of God” in her brothers and sisters.

On Holy Saturday, March 31st, 1945, Mother Maria was taken to the gas chamber and entered eternal life. It is suggested that she took the place of a Jewish woman who had been selected for death. A week later, the camp was liberated by the Red Army. In the Orthodox Church she is commemorated on July 20th.