Anna was born in 1909 in the German part of the Volga in a large Catholic family. She was a simple nine-year-old student when she first experienced the beginnings of persecution; she wrote:
... In 1918, in the second year, at the beginning of classes, we still prayed the Our Father. One year later, it was already forbidden, and the parish priest could no longer enter the school. They began to mock us Christians, they no longer respected the priests, and they destroyed the seminaries.
At the age of eleven, Anna lost her father and some siblings due to a cholera epidemic. Shortly thereafter, her mother also died, and at just seventeen years old, she took care of her younger brothers and sisters, but “… our parish priest also died at that time, and many priests were imprisoned. So we were left without pastors! That was a hard blow."
We were left without pastors!
"The church in the neighboring parish was still open, but there was no priest there either. The faithful gathered anyway to pray, but without the pastor, the church was abandoned. I cried and couldn't calm down. How many hymns, how many prayers had filled it, and now everything seemed dead." After this school of profound spiritual suffering, Anna began to pray especially for priests and missionaries. “Lord, give us a priest again, give us Holy Communion! I suffer all willingly for Your love, most Sacred Heart of Jesus!" Anna offered all the subsequent sufferings for the priests, especially when, on a night in 1938, her brother and her husband – happily married for seven years – were arrested and never returned.
Surrender of the priestly service
In 1942, the young widow Anna was deported to Kazakhstan with her three children. “It was hard to face the cold of winter, but then spring came. At that time, I cried a lot, but I also prayed very much. I had the feeling that someone was holding my hand. In the city of Syrjanowsk, I found some Catholic women of faith. We gathered secretly every Sunday and on feast days to sing and pray the rosary. I often begged: Maria, our dear mother, see how poor we are. Send us priests again, masters and pastors!"
From 1965, the violence of the persecution decreased, and Anna could go once a year to the capital of Kyrgyzstan, where a Catholic priest lived in exile. "When a church was built in Bishkek, I went there with Vittoria, a friend of mine, to attend Holy Mass. The trip was long, more than 1000 kilometers, but for us, it was a great joy. We hadn’t seen a priest or a confessional for more than 20 years! The pastor of that city was elderly and had spent more than ten years in prison because of his faith. While I was there, I was entrusted with the keys to the church, so I could spend long hours in adoration. I never imagined being so close to the tabernacle. Full of joy, I knelt down and kissed it.”
Before traveling, Anna was permitted to bring Holy Communion to the elderly Catholics in her city who could never have gone personally. “At the request of the priest, in my city, for thirty years I baptized children and adults, prepared couples for the sacrament of marriage, and officiated funerals until, for health reasons, I could no longer provide this service.”
Secret prayers to bring a priest!
It is impossible to imagine Anna’s gratitude when, in 1995, she met a missionary priest for the first time. She cried with joy and exclaimed emotionally: “Jesus has come, the High Priest!” She had been praying for decades for a priest to come to her city, but by the time she was 86 years old, she had lost hope of seeing this deep desire fulfilled with her own eyes.
The Holy Mass was celebrated in her home, and this wonderful woman with a priestly soul could receive Holy Communion. For the rest of the day, Anna ate nothing to express her deep respect and joy in this way.