Feodosia Morozova

Feodosia Prokopiyevna Morozova (; ; 21 May 1632 – 1 December 1675) was a Russian noblewoman and one of the best-known partisans of the Old Believer movement.

Life She was born on 21 May 1632 into a family of the okolnichy Prokopy Feodorovich Sokovnin. At the age of 17, she was married to the boyar Gleb Morozov, brother to the tsar's tutor Boris Morozov, one of the wealthiest men in Russia and brother-in-law of Tsar Alexis. Morozova bore one child to Gleb, a son, Ivan. After her husband's early death in 1662, she retained a prominent position at the Russian court as a lady-in-waiting to Tsarina Maria. She also inherited vast wealth, which she administered on behalf of her son Ivan.

Boyaryna Morozova by Vasily Surikov is depicting Morozova's arrest by the Nikonites in 1671. As an Old Believer, she holds two fingers, rather than three, raised in the old way of making the sign of the cross. During the Raskol, because Archpriest Avvakum was her confessor, Morozova joined the Old Believers' movement and secretly took monastic vows with the name Theodora.

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