Lydia Berdyaev

Lydia Yudifovna Berdyaev ( 20 August 1871, Kharkov, Russian Empire - September 1945, Clamart, France) was a Russian poet, member of Russian apostolate and leader of the Russian diaspora in France.

She was born in Kharkov, into an Orthodox family. Her father served as a Civil law notary at the Kharkov District Court.

Her first marriage was with Baron Victor Ivanovich Rapp, an official of Kharkov Chamber of Control and coowner of the publishing house "V.I. Rapp and V. Potapov."

She was member of the Kharkov Union of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, for which she was arrested on 6 January 1900 and jailed for a month. After her release she went to Paris to study at the School of Social Sciences.

She parted with her first husband and on 19 February 1904 she met her future husband, the philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, in Kiev.

In 1918, when he was seriously ill with pneumonia, she was reading a book about Saint Teresa of Avila, why she has an interest in Catholic mysticism. Berdyaev introduced her to the priest Vladimir Abrikosov and on 7 June 1918 she converted to Catholicism. In 1922 Berdyaev was in exile, living in Germany and in France. Lydia became an assistant of her husband, editing his articles and books, preparing them for publication; in addition, she was an active parishioner of the Parish of the Holy Trinity in Paris, where she took part in the charitable and pastoral projects of charity. She died in Clamart in 1945 from throat cancer.