Moscow, April 14, Interfax – An Orthodox nun managed to end a legacy of suicide among the residents of Otvazhnoye village of the Amur Region, Russia.

Since the 1970s, whole families of the village have committed suicides. People killed themselves almost every month. This trend was turned around only after the former agriculturist Galina Neuman took monastic vows and established a parish, reports Wednesday a Far Eastern issue of Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Galina Neuman, now Mother Domnikia, came to live in the village about 40 years ago. After her elder son hanged himself, she began regularly attending church, and decided to establish a parish in place of the dilapidated state farm office. She spent the whole amount of her retirement pension to renovate the building. However, her initiative found no support with her home-folks who used to insult her and even spit in her face.

After the parish was opened, people brought their whole families to receive baptism. Those who used to spit in the nun’s face were the first to ask for baptism. The residents of the village ceased to kill themselves of their own free will. Only one man committed suicide during the last three years, because he could not stand the agony of cancer.