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Archimandrite Damascene Orlovsky. Archimandrite Damascene (Orlovsky): New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (02/08/2015). Martyrs, confessors and devotees of piety

Reference: The Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 determined to celebrate Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia January 25, old style, i.e. February 7 according to the new style (on the day of remembrance of the murder of the Hieromartyr Vladimir Epiphany) if this date coincides with a Sunday or on the nearest Sunday after this date . This year the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia will take place on February 8th. We bring to your attention a story about the Russian new martyrs by the most authoritative modern church researcher on the theme of the feat of the Russian Church in the twentieth century - Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky).

- Father Damascene, during the years of repression there were many terrible and different terrible years. But 1937 is a special year. By the number and brutal nature of repression? Or by some other trait of yours?

Yes, 1937 was a special year. First of all, of course, in terms of the number and scope of repressions. If from 1921 to 1940 there were 3,080,574 people convicted of so-called “counter-revolutionary crimes”, then in 1937 alone, 790,665 people were arrested under the famous 58th article. And, of course, the year was special in terms of the cruelty of repression. The huge number of people arrested at one time and the shortened period of investigation were accompanied in many cases by painful conditions in prison, which turned into a special kind of torture, beatings during the investigation and various kinds of threats. Of course, we cannot claim that torture was applied to all these hundreds of thousands of people. In many cases, investigators limited themselves to the testimony of witnesses who incriminated a person, and the investigator could always write that the accused so-and-so did not plead guilty, but was incriminated by the testimony of witnesses. For simplified “legal proceedings” with the help of troikas in the NKVD departments, which consider cases in list order, such a procedure was quite sufficient. These are the objective external characteristics of 1937 - the beating by the authorities of their own people - a large number of arrests, an investigation carried out beyond the boundaries of all legal norms, and simplified legal proceedings. But for a person, it was truly scary because almost none of those arrested people imagined that such a thing could even happen. During the years of Soviet power, having already been arrested once or twice, a person got used to the idea that this was the style of governing the country under the new government - arrest, sentence, release after a certain period, a little life in freedom, arrest again, sentence and so on endlessly. People could not imagine that the anniversary revolutionary year would come, which would be characterized by mass beatings, where all those arrested would be classified into two categories: 1st - those who should have been shot and 2nd - who should have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, and if they survive, then after 10 years they will be exiled again, which of course the victims had no idea about at the time.

Taganskaya prison

What did this mean for a person and, in particular, for a Christian, for whom the idea of ​​death is inextricably linked with the idea of ​​repentance? A person who was arrested in 1937 had to prepare not for life and not for how he would live in prison after the verdict, but for death. The worst thing was being doomed to a violent death without knowing it. Hence sometimes cowardice and some kind of deals with the investigation: people expected to live, but they were almost sentenced to death. What was a person’s experience when he found out about this half an hour before his death - and nothing could be done?! A lesson for a Christian: on earth one must prepare not for life, but for death. Most of those arrested that year were doomed to be shot at the very moment of their arrest; they only had time to prepare for death - sometimes it was only one week from the day of arrest, sometimes a month or two. But they didn't know about it. The scary thing is that a person’s time for repentance was taken away. With all this, one cannot help but say that this year, which almost ceased the physical existence of the Church in Russia, increased the number of its saints.

Reception of prisoners in the prison yard 1930s.

In the preface to the third volume of your seven-volume work, you write that the repressions of 1937 are related to the results of the USSR population census that took place at the beginning of 1937. Please tell us, the readers, about the results of this census and how they relate to the repression.

Back in 1935, Stalin and the secretaries of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A.A. Andreev and N.I. Yezhov, who was to organize the repressions in 1937, became aware that the anti-religious policy pursued in the country was not very successful. For example, in the Ivanovo region there were 2,500 clergy for 2,000 prayer buildings; in the Gorky Territory there were up to 1,500 prayer buildings and more than 1,500 clergy. And throughout the “whole country,” according to the authorities’ calculations, “there were at least 25,000 houses of worship (in 1914 there were up to 50,000 churches).” At the beginning of 1937, on Stalin’s initiative, an all-Union population census took place, in which Stalin also included the question of belonging to social groups and, in particular, to the so-called “clergy,” as well as the question of religion.

1937 census poster

Of the 98.4 million people over 16 years of age who answered this question, 55.3 million called themselves believers, 42.2 million - non-believers, and 0.9 million did not answer this question. Of the believers, the overwhelming majority - 41.6 million - called themselves Orthodox. The census testified to the failure of the plan to destroy religion through anti-religious propaganda and “soft violence” - camps and exile. The implementation of this plan began to be carried out with the help of terror in 1937.

Illumination in Moscow for the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution

- In our conversation, we cannot help but touch on the personality of I.V. Stalin. Please tell me, Father Damascene, what evidence there is of his personal initiatives in destroying the Church in our country during the 1930s?

Even under Lenin, in 1922, when the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced priests innocent of anything before the Soviet regime to death and their fate was decided by the Politburo, it was Stalin who sent a note to all members of the Politburo and wrote: “I personally vote against the abolition of the court’s decision,” those. for execution. And in all cases when the fate of the clergy was decided by the Politburo, Stalin always advocated execution exclusively.

The leader signed not only sentences

On May 20, 1937, Stalin ordered, through Malenkov, to discuss a proposal - to abolish the church twenties and the governing bodies of church parishes, which could only be done if the parishes ceased to exist. In response to this proposal, on May 26, the head of the NKVD N.I. Yezhov proposed completely abolishing the then existing legislation on cults and creating a commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which would write new legislation. And Stalin, the practitioner, who did not like unnecessary writing, on July 3, 1937, sent Yezhov and all the secretaries of the regional and regional committees and the Central Committee of the National Communist Parties a simple and brief order: to submit within five days “to the Central Committee the composition of the troikas, as well as the number of those subject to execution, as well as the number subject to expulsion." On July 30, the NKVD operational order No. 00447 was adopted, which set “the task of defeating this entire gang of anti-Soviet elements in the most merciless way.” Their number included, according to the authorities’ terminology of that time, “church members.” Thus began the terror of 1937, signed by Stalin. By the end of the terror, out of 25,000 churches, 1,277 remained, and it is unknown whether worship was performed in them. The losses of 1937 for the Church and for the people as a whole turned out to be irreparable, and it is unknown whether the damage that Stalin inflicted on the Church will ever be overcome.

Poster. N. Yezhov destroys the anti-Soviet hydra

- So, the change in policy towards the Church that took place in 1943 was only a tactical step?

As for the change in policy towards the Church after 1943, this change pursued the only goal - the use of the Church by the state in its foreign policy activities. In this regard, rabid anti-religious propaganda stopped. But churches, just as before, continued to be closed with the knowledge and under the control of Stalin. In particular, “in accordance with the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated December 1, 1944 No. 1643-48/s<…>public buildings occupied by them during the occupation as houses of worship were confiscated from religious communities, based on the return of these buildings to the Soviet authorities.” The buildings in question were the buildings of churches that were transferred to collective farms after their closure in the 1930s, and during the occupation, they were put in order by believers, so that it became possible to perform divine services in them. By October 1, 1949, 1,150 of the 1,701 buildings had been confiscated. Stalin closely watched this process, as evidenced by his notes on the documents. The head of the MGB regularly reported to him about the arrests of clergy and laity. It is known, for example, that from January 1, 1947 to June 1, 1948, 679 Orthodox churchmen were arrested in the Soviet Union. As of October 1, 1949, there were 3,523 priests imprisoned in the camps. Such was the policy of the state led by Stalin in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church in those years.

Sentence to death by Archimandrite Lev (Egorov), leader of Alexander Nevsky

fraternities in the 1920s

- How do you feel about the veneration of Stalin in the church environment?

Russian people have almost always been in opposition to the existing government. He did not like the absolutist monarchy, which carried elements of the German bureaucracy in its management style. It gave way to a communist dictatorship. The communist dictatorship, even in its weakened form before its collapse, aroused fair protest. It was replaced by a new form, which is perceived by Russian people to a large extent as foreign. This form is also seen by Russian people today as having exhausted its possibilities. And since there are no longer political models in the world that could be borrowed, all the “foreign dresses” are worn and worn out and not a single one fits, then another church person, looking back in search of an ideal, extracts from the past as a “political ideal” Stalin. But this approach is dangerous. Instead of exploring, reflecting and finally looking for reasons, Why we have had problems in the past, to impartially study our history, we prefer again to mindlessly bow to a dead political scheme, in this case in the form of the dictatorship of Stalin. It is free to bow to a political idol when he is in the distant past, but it is not so easy to live at his feet during his lifetime. If we ask ourselves whether the church people who lived in the 1930s were happy with Stalin, we can easily answer that none of the church people, being in their right mind and memory, would have said then, covering the ditches of the Butovo training ground with their bodies or awaiting arrest, that he is happy with the dictator. It is also a well-known fact that it was the church society that hesitated during the Second World War, not knowing which dictatorship to choose. By choosing, at least in words, as a political ideal Stalin, a man who brought suffering to millions of people, including church people, we find ourselves in solidarity not with those who suffered, but with those who brought suffering. I can’t name any other reason for this strange Stalinophilia than the reluctance to think about the past, tragic history of our country. But now is not the time to search for a political scheme or a human ideal; we already have an ideal - this is the Lord. And now the time has come for work and reflection, perhaps the hardest work for modern man, because for too long we have been weaned from thinking.


Telegram asking to increase the limit

Father Damascene, before your eyes there were thousands of investigative cases, you witnessed thousands of tragic human destinies. Please tell us about those cases when your confession of faith in Christ was most vivid in your memory.

This, of course, is Archbishop Andronik (Nikolsky) of Perm and Kungur, who created church work despite merciless persecution; standing in front of the grave and knowing that he would be buried alive, he maintained peace, a deep prayerful attitude and goodwill towards his killers.

Andronik, Bishop of Tikhvin, vicar of the Novgorod diocese

The persecutors themselves subsequently testified to his feat with fear and surprise. And dear to the heart of Archbishop Andronik, Barsanuphius (Lebedev), Bishop of Kirillov, who courageously walked his wonderful path to Calvary. Only the ancient martyrs could have said before their death: “I am not afraid of violent death, but I do not dare to think that the Lord will find me worthy of martyrdom.” And looking at the place of torment, note that a clergyman must go to death without fear, with joy, as at a wedding feast. And Khionia of Arkhangelsk, who had many children, who had eighteen children with her husband (the holy martyr Tikhon, who was shot in October 1937), did not shy away from suffering when the time came, but boldly followed her priest husband to prison, and managed to maintain peace and faith in prison , who accepted the conclusion with humility and, in response to the investigator’s threat, said: “Your will. But I lived, sinned, and must be punished for my sins.”

What could you tell us about cases of renunciation of Christ? How often did they occur? Do you know of cases of subsequent repentance after renunciation?

Christians in the twentieth century in Soviet Russia lived in somewhat different conditions than the ancient martyrs in the Roman Empire. The Soviet Union had a constitution that stated the freedom to profess any religion. And investigators could torture a person, asking about faith only in secret, without recording this in the interrogation records. In those years, the godless government wanted a little more from a person than verbal renunciation; it wanted a person to collaborate with it in practice, to confirm his unbelief with deeds. Do we consider Alexander Vvedensky, the former archpriest who betrayed Metropolitan of Petrograd Veniamin (Kazansky) to the authorities to death, and his comrades-in-arms in the war against the Church as having renounced Christ or not? Or Mikhail Galkin, a former archpriest who fought with the Church under the pseudonym Gorev. However, there were also enough one-time renouncers. In those mournful years for the Church, their lists were published abundantly in newspapers. We open and read: Akilychev, priest, who served in the church for 23 years, Barminsky, priest, Bestuzhev, deacon, Bogoslovsky, priest, Vinogradov, priest, Vostokov, deacon, Delfontsev, deacon, Znamensky, priest, Kireev, priest, Koryakin, deacon, Krylov, deacon, Lebedev, archpriest, Malygin, priest, Nevsky, priest, Speransky, priest, Trinity, priest, Shepetov, priest, etc., etc., indicating full names, patronymics and place of service. Of course, there were those returning to church service, but this return took place under the watchful supervision of the relevant authorities, so it cannot be completely called repentance, as it was in ancient times. But there were cases when a clergyman, out of cowardice, agreed to betray his brothers, then repented. In other cases, written evidence of his repentance remained. Protodeacon Nikolai Tokhtuev, having made such a choice, wrote to the head of the local NKVD: “Citizen chief!.. What you demand of me, I cannot do... Although I am a family man, but in order to be pure before God, I I am leaving my family for His sake... I am strengthened and encouraged by my spirit by the One for whose sake I will go to suffer, and I am sure that He will not leave me until my last breath if I am faithful to Him, and we must all give an account of how we lived on earth... And I cannot serve you as you want, and I can’t bend my soul before God. So I want to be cleansed by the sufferings that will be imposed on me by you, and I will accept them with love.” Protodeacon Nikolai was sent to a concentration camp and died in custody.

Protodeacon Nikolai Tokhtuev

Father Damascene, among the martyrs of 1937 such personalities as Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky), Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov), and Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov) shine. But perhaps, in your opinion, there is someone else who undoubtedly deserves attention, but is undeservedly forgotten, although glorified by the Church?

Those about whom we can say that these are people of holy life, who have shown constancy and firmness in the confessional feat and courage in martyrdom, but whose lives are not paid enough attention, are quite numerous. In addition to those whom I have already named, the following can also be named. Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky), Archbishop of Tver, an ascetic from his youth and a man of holy life, impeccable in all respects and a Christian in all circumstances, the most humble bishop of the Russian Church of those years. Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev), Archbishop of Voronezh, ascetic archpastor. Hieromartyr Presbyter John Vostorgov, who during his lifetime did as much for the Church as hundreds of people and dozens of church institutions could have done. Martyr Tatiana Grimblit, who did good to many archpastors and shepherds of the Russian Church. And blessed Nina Kuznetsova, ascetic and martyr.

Martyr Tatiana (Grimblit), icon

Hieromonk Theodore of the Epiphany, the venerable martyr depicted in P. Korin’s painting “Departing Rus'”, the investigation materials of which indicate that no investigation can do anything to a person against his will, and investigators cannot draw up interrogation reports not in accordance with what the person agreed - he may simply not sign them. Blessed Matrona Belyakova, Anemnyasevo ascetic and confessor, whose Christian feat can only be compared with the feat of the ancient ascetics. She was blind - and in the interrogation report the investigator could have written whatever he wanted, and the witnesses obedient to the investigator could have signed it, but this did not happen; clumsily in style, but essentially correctly, they reflected in the interrogation report what she said. This is Archpriest Nikolai Lebedev, who, long before the revolution, took up the feat of combating the vice of drunkenness and set up a shelter for homeless children - under Soviet rule he became a confessor and died in exile. This is Archpriest John Steblin-Kamensky, a holy martyr, who experienced his imprisonment in the Solovetsky concentration camp as a blessed spring for the soul. And many, many others. All of them deserve the attention of church people, and in worship - solemn services and printing their names in bold on the church calendar, at least as a reminder of this. And, first of all, because their feat and their prayers are important for the entire Russian Church.

Priest John Steblin-Kamensky. Leningrad. OGPU prison 1924

There are cases when this or that hieromartyr is not glorified, but undoubtedly evokes the deepest respect - for example, Bishop Theodore (Pozdeevsky) or Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky). (And they are also martyrs of 1937). Please explain why we should not be embarrassed that such individuals are not celebrated.

This probably confuses us because we consider the opinion of the Synodal Commission and the decision of the Holy Synod to include the name of this or that person in the calendar as a kind of court, and failure to include it as a sentence. But this is completely untrue. The commission considers only the obstacles to canonization existing in the documents in accordance with the criteria accepted by the Church. However, there are many saints, ascetics of piety, church scientists who have done a lot of work for the good of the Church, and their names are not in the calendar, but we use their works. And this does not bother us. It shouldn't be confusing in this case either.

What do you think is necessary for the veneration of the new martyrs to become an urgent need for our Orthodox compatriots?

We need to read about them, study their lives, compare our lives with them, compare what is important and significant for us, and what was important and significant for the martyrs. Do we live by the same values, are we determined to achieve similar goals? It’s important to compare them and us, and primarily because often the persecutors left them nothing but faith in Christ. They were deprived of everything, but can enrich us with much. If we talk about the practical way of updating the veneration of the new martyrs, then we probably need, in addition to the individual lives of the new martyrs currently published, chapters dedicated to them in textbooks and anthologies.

The scientific director of the Regional Public Fund “Memory of Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church”, secretary of the Synodal Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate for the canonization of saints, executive secretary of the Church-Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the perpetuation of memory speaks about the study of the immortal feat of the new martyrs and their life in Christ new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, compiler of the complete set of lives of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian 20th century, abbot of Damascus (Orlovsky).

– Father Damascus, the life of the Church from the first centuries was built on the exploits of martyrs. How does the feat of the new martyrs differ from the feat of the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity? And how does studying their lives differ from studying the lives of ancient martyrs?

– The feat itself, its qualitative content has not changed in any way; the same Christian with faith in the risen Christ stood before God in ancient times, and stood before God in the 20th century. It was not the content of the Christian feat that changed, but the circumstances in which this feat began to be performed. If Christians of the first centuries were persecuted only for the fact that they were Christians, Christianity itself outlawed them, then during the persecution in the twentieth century, Christianity was not declared criminal and worthy of death, as it was in ancient times.

From a Christian in the twentieth century. They did not always demand renunciation of Christ. The main thing has become not who you say you are, but who you really are. You can call yourself a Christian, but not actually be one. Therefore, if the life of the ancient martyrs was considered according to one criterion - their faith in Christ, then the life of those who suffered from the authorities in the 20th century is considered according to many characteristics. And the approach to studying them is personal, that is, we need to study a person’s life in order to understand who is in front of us. The authorities at that time were quite happy with the situation for Christians to be Christians only in name or to secretly help the persecutors. Therefore, in those years, Christians by name could be apostates from the faith, false witnesses against their neighbors and people of a lifestyle unworthy of a Christian. And at the same time, everyone must suffer like many of our glorious martyrs, those for whom there was nothing more precious and beautiful than the Church of Christ. This means that the methodology for studying the lives of martyrs, with church criteria remaining unchanged, has become different.

In the 20th century A political phenomenon that had not existed before - a totalitarian state - appeared on the historical stage. How can you characterize it? The totality and power of state pressure on an individual, when all the material and psychological power organized by the state was used, when in order to break and crush this or that person with an ideology that was hostile, as the authorities considered, all the levers and capabilities of the state machine were used. A church person found himself almost as if in a foreign, some kind of “Babylonian” captivity, but unlike ordinary captivity during interstate wars, he then had nowhere to run except Heaven. Under these conditions, some, in order to save their lives, made a deal with their conscience. Can they be called confessors or martyrs, even though they subsequently suffered a violent death? The feat of the new martyrs also differs in terms of the conditions of the investigative process, which in the twentieth century. in contrast to the open process in ancient times, it was closed from others and is almost inaccessible for full study at the present time, because the body of documents of judicial investigative cases, which is now mainly studied, reflects only part of the life of the injured clergyman or layman, and as part of the information the whole may not be sufficient to reconstruct events. The Church is now accused of allegedly completely trusting everything written in the interrogation reports of the accused.

However, it is not. Everyone understands perfectly well that people at that time were falsely accused of crimes that were not committed. And in this case, it is not the accusation itself that is important, but the position of the accused in relation to the accusation brought against him. At the Councils of Bishops, it was stated with the utmost clarity more than once that there are “no grounds for the canonization of persons who, during the investigation, incriminated themselves or others, causing the arrest, suffering or death of innocent people, despite the fact that they suffered. The cowardice they showed in such circumstances cannot serve as an example, for canonization is evidence of the holiness and courage of the ascetic, which the Church of Christ calls its children to imitate” (see: Report of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, on Bishops' Jubilee Council. M.: Cathedral of Christ the Savior, August 13–16, 2000).

There were cases when people who found themselves face to face with persecutors bore false witness, betrayed their souls, and under pressure from investigators signed texts that they would never have signed under other circumstances. They say that the investigators had methods of influence, torture, etc. But this objection is beyond criticism, because in this case we are not talking about people in general, but about holy martyrs, not in general about unjust victims, but about those whose behavior in the face death was flawless in every way. A reference to the conditions of the investigation of the twentieth century, making perjury excusable, would mean a change in the canonization criteria accepted by the Church, which always considered the merits of the martyr’s feat and did not seek justification for sin in the severity of torture, under which moral and religious principles could be abandoned.


We can only call those who are glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church new martyrs. In accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of February 16, 1999, we call only those glorified by the Church holy martyrs; the names of the rest, Thou, Lord, weigh. This formula and the non-inclusion of those not glorified by name in the list of new martyrs allows, in accordance with the definition of the Holy Synod, “to exclude from the rank of veneration those who died outside the Orthodox Church, having fallen away from it due to a church schism, or because of betrayal, or for non-church reasons” ( Canonization of saints in the twentieth century. M., 1999). So it would be a mistake to call those who suffered but were not glorified by the Church as new martyrs.

– What did the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church have to renounce in the first place for the sake of fidelity to Christ, what deprivations did they accept in life?

– First of all, in order to avoid persecution during the years of Soviet power, believers had to hide the fact that they were believers. In those years, if a person remained faithful to Christ, he could lose his job and generally be left without a livelihood, he could be arrested, imprisoned or sent into exile. Persecution concerned not only adult family members, but also children, who could be persecuted in schools for wearing a cross or for attending religious services. Accordingly, parents have always lived under the threat of deprivation of parental rights for raising children in a religious spirit. A believer should have been ready at that time to lose everything, but not be ashamed of Christ and His words.

– During the years of persecution of the Orthodox Church in the country, there was, as we would now say, a family crisis: the official policy of the godless government inculcated the cult of worship of material wealth, imposed freedom of relationships for spouses, public education of children according to standard state programs, which were based on the principles of godlessness and depersonalization. Today we are reaping the bitter fruits of the experiments of the Soviet regime. Can the life experience of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church help modern spouses in resisting this external pressure, as well as in raising children?

– For a family to be able to resist modern temptations, the family itself must be Christian. Modern temptations can only be countered by a different content of life - Christian content. One must, first of all, be a Christian, and then the temptations of this world will not touch a person’s soul. The experience of the new martyrs clearly testifies to this. At that time, many Christian families of laity and clergy were not afraid of anything, well understanding that their only strong support in this life was the Christian faith. In this sense, modern man is not so much seduced by the world as he is seduced himself, often looking for temptations himself and not looking for how and with what to spiritually feed his soul in order to save it.

Going through the family field requires a lot of effort from a person; without exaggeration, we can say that this is a feat. The Church symbolizes marriage with martyr's crowns, bestowing grace-filled strength on the spouses so that for the worthy and ascetic bearing of this cross on earth they will be crowned in the Kingdom of Heaven.


Arrival at the elephant

An example of family life was, for example, the Hieromartyr Tikhon and his wife, confessor Chionia, of Arkhangelsk, glorified in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. They lived in the Voronezh region, where Father Tikhon served as a priest. They had 18 children. The couple raised their children without being embarrassed by poverty, teaching their children to do all kinds of work, which helped them subsequently survive many hardships.

The mother, Khionia Ivanovna, was involved in raising the children. She taught the children to pray and to turn to God in all difficulties. On all major and minor church holidays, the children went to church with her. She taught them to fast in accordance with church regulations. During Lent, the reading of secular books was postponed and the Law of God was read. The children retold what they read to their father or mother. Since there was little free time from work then, they retold the story while they were working - in the garden, in the field, or doing handicrafts.

On August 9, 1937, Father Tikhon was arrested. “Are there any weapons?” – the NKVD officer asked him. “There is,” answered the priest, “the cross and prayer!” Archpriest Tikhon Arkhangelsky was executed on October 17, 1937. Before the execution, the executioner asked him: “Will you not renounce?” - “No, I won’t renounce!” - answered the priest.

On December 12, 1937, authorities arrested Khionia Ivanovna. A few days later, the courageous confessor wrote to the children from prison: “My dear children, I’ve been in a cage for three days, but I think it’s an eternity. There was no formal interrogation yet, but they asked if I believed that God saved the Jews by drowning the Pharaoh in the sea, I said: I believe, and for this they called me a Trotskyist, who need to be destroyed as enemies of the Soviet regime... God bless you and Him Most Pure Mother..."

On December 31, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Khionia Ivanovna to eight years in prison. Khionia Ivanovna died in December 1945, becoming, together with her husband, Hieromartyr Tikhon, a Christian example of raising children and a prayer book for all those striving for a pious family life.

– To endure interrogations and torture in dungeons was beyond human strength. What helped the new martyrs to remain faithful to the gospel truth to the end and at the same time preserve human dignity?


– For the new martyrs, the trials that came became an exam that they passed to God, who was gracious to them. The main difficulty and sorrow of the martyrs of the twentieth century was not in torture, but in the fact that they could not wait out persecution and torment, exile and imprisonment, as happened in ancient times, when all persecution eventually ended and people could again begin to live their usual lives. them with life, almost not pursued. Our new martyrs and confessors had to live under conditions of persecution, imprisonment and exile throughout their lives.

What qualities did they need to endure all this with dignity? First of all, such a very useful virtue for a person as patience. “Through your patience save your souls... He who endures to the end will be saved,” says the Lord. This virtue, growing, helped the martyr to see the Providence of God in his life, the active participation of God in it, which in itself strengthened his spiritual strength. The second thing that helped to endure trials and at the same time was the fruit of patience shown in trials was the deepest Christian humility. It was this main virtue that suffering taught; thanks to this divine virtue, the martyrs were able to endure all the trials.

For the new martyrs and confessors, the persecution that befell them in the twentieth century was not a factor of external violence. For them, these were circumstances in which the Lord placed them not only to suffer, but also to live. And what could be more comforting for the new martyrs and confessors than to know that the Lord is always with them - both in a prison cell and behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp.

“Are you asking when my torment will end? – Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) wrote from prison. – I will answer this way: I do not recognize torment and do not suffer. With my “experience”… you won’t surprise or frighten me with prison. I’m already used to not sitting, but living in prison...”

– You have taken upon yourself the extraordinary work of studying the feat of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church and compiling complete biographies. What inspired you to do this and what is your current job?

– Of course, first of all, there is a duty to the Church, an awareness of the need for this to be done, and the fact that this can be accomplished within a certain time frame. There are things that can be done either now, or already, at least in the proper volumes, that will be difficult to do ever. Lives are written on the basis of research in various archival funds, and the methodology for researching and writing the lives of new martyrs is similar to how the lives of ancient martyrs were written.

The scientific director of the Regional Public Fund “Memory of Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church”, secretary of the Synodal Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate for the canonization of saints, executive secretary of the Church-Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia for the perpetuation of memory speaks about the study of the immortal feat of the new martyrs and their life in Christ new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, compiler of the complete set of lives of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian 20th century, abbot of Damascus (Orlovsky).

Father Damascus, the life of the Church from the first centuries was built on the exploits of martyrs. How does the feat of the new martyrs differ from the feat of the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity? And how does studying their lives differ from studying the lives of ancient martyrs?

The feat itself, its qualitative content, has not changed in any way; the same Christian with faith in the risen Christ stood before God in ancient times, and stood before God in the 20th century. It was not the content of the Christian feat that changed, but the circumstances in which this feat began to be performed. If Christians of the first centuries were persecuted only for the fact that they were Christians, Christianity itself outlawed them, then during the persecution in the twentieth century, Christianity was not declared criminal and worthy of death, as it was in ancient times. From a Christian in the twentieth century. They did not always demand renunciation of Christ. The main thing has become not who you say you are, but who you really are. You can call yourself a Christian, but not actually be one. Therefore, if the life of the ancient martyrs was considered according to one criterion - their faith in Christ, then the life of those who suffered from the authorities in the 20th century is considered according to many characteristics. And the approach to studying them is personal, that is, we need to study a person’s life in order to understand who is in front of us. The authorities at that time were quite happy with the situation for Christians to be Christians only in name or to secretly help the persecutors. Therefore, in those years, Christians by name could be apostates from the faith, false witnesses against their neighbors and people of a lifestyle unworthy of a Christian. And at the same time, everyone must suffer like many of our glorious martyrs, those for whom there was nothing dearer and more beautiful than the Church of Christ. This means that the methodology for studying the lives of martyrs, with church criteria remaining unchanged, has become different.

In the 20th century A political phenomenon that had not existed before - a totalitarian state - appeared on the historical stage. How can you characterize it? The totality and power of state pressure on an individual, when all the material and psychological power organized by the state was used, when in order to break and crush this or that person with an ideology that was hostile, as the authorities considered, all the levers and capabilities of the state machine were used. A church person found himself almost as if in a foreign, some kind of “Babylonian” captivity, but unlike ordinary captivity during interstate wars, he then had nowhere to run except Heaven. Under these conditions, some, in order to save their lives, made a deal with their conscience. Can they be called confessors or martyrs, even though they subsequently suffered a violent death? The feat of the new martyrs also differs in terms of the conditions of the investigative process, which in the twentieth century. in contrast to the open process in ancient times, it was closed from others and is almost inaccessible for full study at the present time, because the body of documents of judicial investigative cases, which is now mainly studied, reflects only part of the life of the injured clergyman or layman, and as part of the information the whole may not be sufficient to reconstruct events. The Church is now accused of allegedly completely trusting everything written in the interrogation reports of the accused.

However, it is not. Everyone understands perfectly well that people at that time were falsely accused of crimes that were not committed. And in this case, it is not the accusation itself that is important, but the position of the accused in relation to the accusation brought against him. At the Councils of Bishops, it was stated with the utmost clarity more than once that there are “no grounds for the canonization of persons who, during the investigation, incriminated themselves or others, causing the arrest, suffering or death of innocent people, despite the fact that they suffered. The cowardice they showed in such circumstances cannot serve as an example, for canonization is evidence of the holiness and courage of the ascetic, which the Church of Christ calls its children to imitate” (see: Report of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, on Bishops' Jubilee Council. M.: Cathedral of Christ the Savior, August 13-16, 2000). There were cases when people who found themselves face to face with persecutors bore false witness, betrayed their souls, and under pressure from investigators signed texts that they would never have signed under other circumstances. They say that the investigators had methods of influence, torture, etc. But this objection is beyond criticism, because in this case we are not talking about people in general, but about holy martyrs, not in general about unjust victims, but about those whose behavior in the face death was flawless in every way. A reference to the conditions of the investigation of the twentieth century, making perjury excusable, would mean a change in the canonization criteria accepted by the Church, which always considered the merits of the martyr’s feat and did not seek justification for sin in the severity of torture, under which moral and religious principles could be abandoned.

We can only call those who are glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church new martyrs. In accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of February 16, 1999, we call only those glorified by the Church holy martyrs; the names of the rest, Thou, Lord, weigh. This formula and the non-inclusion of those not glorified by name in the list of new martyrs allows, in accordance with the definition of the Holy Synod, “to exclude from the rank of veneration those who died outside the Orthodox Church, having fallen away from it due to a church schism, or because of betrayal, or for non-church reasons” ( Canonization of saints in the twentieth century. M., 1999). So it would be a mistake to call those who suffered but were not glorified by the Church as new martyrs.

What first of all did the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church have to renounce for the sake of fidelity to Christ, what deprivations did they accept in life?

First of all, in order to avoid persecution during the years of Soviet power, believers had to hide the fact that they were believers. In those years, if a person remained faithful to Christ, he could lose his job and generally be left without a livelihood, he could be arrested, imprisoned or sent into exile. Persecution concerned not only adult family members, but also children, who could be persecuted in schools for wearing a cross or for attending religious services. Accordingly, parents have always lived under the threat of deprivation of parental rights for raising children in a religious spirit. A believer should have been ready at that time to lose everything, but not be ashamed of Christ and His words.

During the years of persecution of the Orthodox Church in the country, there was, as we would now say, a family crisis: the official policy of the godless government inculcated the cult of worship of material wealth, imposed freedom of relationships for spouses, public education of children according to standard state programs, which were based on the principles of godlessness and depersonalization. Today we are reaping the bitter fruits of the experiments of the Soviet regime. Can the life experience of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church help modern spouses in resisting this external pressure, as well as in raising children?

In order for a family to resist modern temptations, the family itself must be Christian. Modern temptations can only be countered by a different content of life - Christian content. One must, first of all, be a Christian, and then the temptations of this world will not touch a person’s soul. The experience of the new martyrs clearly testifies to this. At that time, many Christian families of laity and clergy were not afraid of anything, well understanding that their only strong support in this life was the Christian faith. In this sense, modern man is not so much seduced by the world as he is seduced himself, often looking for temptations himself and not looking for how and with what to spiritually feed his soul in order to save it.

Going through the family field requires a lot of effort from a person; without exaggeration, we can say that this is a feat. The Church symbolizes marriage with martyr's crowns, bestowing grace-filled strength on the spouses so that for the worthy and ascetic bearing of this cross on earth they will be crowned in the Kingdom of Heaven.

An example of family life was, for example, the Hieromartyr Tikhon and his wife, confessor Chionia, of Arkhangelsk, glorified in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. They lived in the Voronezh region, where Father Tikhon served as a priest. They had 18 children. The couple raised their children without being embarrassed by poverty, teaching their children to do all kinds of work, which helped them subsequently survive many hardships.

The mother, Khionia Ivanovna, was involved in raising the children. She taught the children to pray and to turn to God in all difficulties. On all major and minor church holidays, the children went to church with her. She taught them to fast in accordance with church regulations. During Lent, the reading of secular books was postponed and the Law of God was read. The children retold what they read to their father or mother. Since there was little free time from work then, they retold the story while they were working - in the garden, in the field, or doing handicrafts.

On August 9, 1937, Father Tikhon was arrested. “Are there any weapons?” - the NKVD officer asked him. “There is,” answered the priest, “the cross and prayer!” Archpriest Tikhon Arkhangelsky was executed on October 17, 1937. Before the execution, the executioner asked him: “Will you not renounce?” - “No, I won’t renounce!” - answered the priest.

On December 12, 1937, authorities arrested Khionia Ivanovna. A few days later, the courageous confessor wrote to the children from prison: “My dear children, I’ve been in a cage for three days, but I think it’s an eternity. There was no formal interrogation yet, but they asked if I believed that God saved the Jews by drowning the Pharaoh in the sea, I said: I believe, and for this they called me a Trotskyist, who need to be destroyed as enemies of the Soviet regime... God bless you and Him Most Pure Mother..."

On December 31, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Khionia Ivanovna to eight years in prison. Khionia Ivanovna died in December 1945, becoming, together with her husband, Hieromartyr Tikhon, a Christian example of raising children and a prayer book for all those striving for a pious family life.

To endure interrogations and torture in dungeons was beyond human strength. What helped the new martyrs to remain faithful to the gospel truth to the end and at the same time preserve human dignity?

For the new martyrs, the trials that came became an exam that they passed to God, who was gracious to them. The main difficulty and sorrow of the martyrs of the twentieth century was not in torture, but in the fact that they could not wait out persecution and torment, exile and imprisonment, as happened in ancient times, when all persecution eventually ended and people could again begin to live their usual lives. them with life, almost not pursued. Our new martyrs and confessors had to live under conditions of persecution, imprisonment and exile throughout their lives. What qualities did they need to endure all this with dignity? First of all, such a very useful virtue for a person as patience. “Through your patience save your souls... He who endures to the end will be saved,” says the Lord. This virtue, growing, helped the martyr to see the Providence of God in his life, the active participation of God in it, which in itself strengthened his spiritual strength. The second thing that helped to endure trials and at the same time was the fruit of patience shown in trials was the deepest Christian humility. It was this main virtue that suffering taught; thanks to this divine virtue, the martyrs were able to endure all the trials. For the new martyrs and confessors, the persecution that befell them in the twentieth century was not a factor of external violence. For them, these were circumstances in which the Lord placed them not only to suffer, but also to live. And what could be more comforting for the new martyrs and confessors than to know that the Lord is always with them - both in a prison cell and behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp. “Are you asking when my torment will end? - Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) wrote from prison. - I will answer this way: I do not recognize torment and do not suffer. With my “experience”… you won’t surprise or frighten me with prison. I’m already used to not sitting, but living in prison...”

You have taken upon yourself the extraordinary work of studying the feat of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church and compiling complete biographies. What inspired you to do this and what is your current job?

Of course, first of all, there is a duty to the Church, an awareness of the need for this to be done, and the fact that this can be accomplished within a certain time frame. There are things that can be done either now, or already, at least in the proper volumes, that will be difficult to do ever. Lives are written on the basis of research in various archival funds, and the methodology for researching and writing the lives of new martyrs is similar to how the lives of ancient martyrs were written.

Compiled by Hegumen Damascene (Orlovsky)

Hieromartyr Sergius was born on February 18, 1883 in the village of Voronovo, Podolsk district, Moscow province, into the family of priest Vasily Felitsyn. Sergei Vasilyevich graduated from the Perervinsky School and three classes of the Moscow Theological Seminary and in 1904 was appointed a psalm-reader at the Transfiguration Church in the village of Buzharovo, Zvenigorod district.

In 1907, he was transferred to the Resurrection Church in the village of Sertyakino, Podolsk district. Here he married a native of this village, Vera Sergeevna Osetrova. They subsequently had eight children.

In 1918, Sergei Vasilyevich was ordained to the rank of deacon, in 1921 - to the rank of priest at the Resurrection Church in the village of Sertyakino, where he served until the day of his arrest. He was awarded a gaiter and a kamilavka.

The parish consisted of residents of the village of Sertyakino and the villages of Maloe and Bolshoye Tolbino and Nikulino, located five kilometers from the temple. Father Sergius was most remembered by parishioners for his Christian kindness.

On November 27, 1937, at two o'clock in the morning, Father Sergius was arrested and imprisoned in the city of Serpukhov. The arrest of Father Sergius shocked his wife so much that she lost her voice, and she responded with signs to the demands of the NKVD officers to show all the places they wanted to search. The priest was accused of being “hostile to Soviet power and having close ties with the counter-revolutionary kulak Zarenkov, who was arrested for counter-revolutionary activities.” The priest was questioned immediately after his arrest.

– Which priests of the Podolsk region do you know? – the investigator asked.

Father Sergius replied that he knew the priest of the parish closest to him, as well as the priest who had previously been the dean, and the current dean.

– The investigation knows that you spread provocative rumors among the population that the Soviet government and the communists were following the path set out in the Holy Scriptures. Tell us about it.

“I didn’t say anything against the Soviet government or the party among the population,” answered the priest.

– Do you plead guilty to conducting anti-Soviet agitation among the population aimed at discrediting the Soviet government and the party?

“I do not plead guilty to the charges brought against me, because I did not conduct anti-Soviet agitation among the population of the village of Sertyakino,” the priest answered.

At this point the interrogation was over. On December 1, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Father Sergius to death. Priest Sergiy Felitsyn was shot on December 15, 1937 and buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo training ground near Moscow.

SOURCES:

GARF. F. 10035, house P-61291.

RGIA. F. 831, op. 1, no. 280.

AMP. Achievement list.

Damascene (Orlovsky), abbot. Martyrs, confessors and devotees of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the twentieth century. Book 6. Tver, 2002. pp. 460–462.

MARTYRS, CONFESSORS AND ASCEDES OF PIONITY

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE XX CENTURY

Biographies and materials for them

Book I. Tver: Bulat, 1992. 237 p. Shooting gallery 100,000.

MARTYRS, CONFESSORS AND ASCETS OF NIZHNY NOVGOROD

Archbishop Joachim (in the world Ioann Joakimovich Levitsky), son of the cleric of the Kyiv diocese, was born in 1853. He received his education at the Kyiv Theological Academy. In 1879 he was appointed teacher at the Riga Theological Seminary, and in 1880 he was ordained a priest at the Riga Cathedral. Having been widowed, he became a monk in 1893 and in 1896 was consecrated Bishop of Balta, vicar of the Kamenets-Podolsk diocese. In 1903, His Grace Joachim was appointed Bishop of Orenburg.

Bishop Joachim was a great patron and defender of missionary work in this diocese. Under him, many people of other faiths joined the Orthodox Church. The Orenburg Seminary introduced the teaching of the Tatar language and the study of Islam as a compulsory subject.

Bishop Joachim found funds to support four diocesan missionaries. He personally converted many sectarians and schismatics to Orthodoxy and, opening parishes of the same faith, he himself served in them using old printed books. In 1905, in the village of Sukhorechenskoye, with the help of local missionaries, he converted the Old Believer priest Fr. Savva the Sweet, with whom several hundred families followed into common faith.

Thanks to the missionary activities of Bishop and missionary Fr. Xenophon Kryuchkov in the Ural region, over a distance of seven hundred miles (from the borders of the Orenburg province to the Caspian Sea), more than fifty Edinoverie churches and schools were built. Hundreds and thousands of Cossacks and nonresidents converted to Orthodoxy on the basis of common faith, and the diocese annually increased by dozens of new parishes.

In 1903, resettlement movement from the southern regions of Russia began to the Turgai region. In the new places there were no churches, no schools, and no priests.

In June 1906 - early 1907, Bishop Joachim sent two diocesan missionaries to the Turgai region, who were personally convinced that the lack of churches gave rise to the captivity of the population by sects of different persuasions.

Upon the return of the missionaries, His Eminence Joachim compiled a report according to which the Holy Synod, in addition to the annual budget, allocated fifty thousand rubles for the construction of churches and schools in the Turgai region. Missionary courses were urgently created in Orenburg and Kustanai, where candidates for priesthood were trained for four months, mainly from folk teachers, psalm-readers and deacons. Temples, schools and hospitals were built with funds from the Synod, and each such point received a priest-teacher. Many pastors from other districts themselves asked to come to Turgai, and thus, in a short time, the entire region was covered with well-organized parishes with zealous pastors, evening services with conversations with priests were established everywhere, and parish religious, educational and missionary brotherhoods began to open.

In 1908, Bishop Joachim himself toured the region. Believers met him in every village. The Bishop himself was a deep expert in the Holy Scriptures and an extraordinary speaker, and in his teachings he briefly, but powerfully and convincingly denounced the errors of the sectarians.

After the sectarian preacher from the village of Viktorovka joined Orthodoxy, retreats into sectarianism were no longer observed anywhere throughout the region. A former head of the sect named Prostibozhenko, a connoisseur of singing and regent, who converted from Baptistism, together with his large family, occupied a prominent place in the Orthodox community as an ardent defender of Orthodoxy. Bishop Joachim invited him to accept the priesthood, which he humbly refused, accepting the position of psalm-reader, regent and assistant missionary.

The diocese was larger than all others in Russia: it included the Orenburg province, the Turgai region and the lands of the Ural Cossack army. From the Tobol River in Chelyabinsk district to the city of Guryev on the Caspian Sea, in a straight line it was exactly three thousand miles. And Bishop Joachim traveled around this vast territory every year, sometimes visiting places where the bishop had not been seen for twenty-five years. In his travels he was tireless, traveling hundreds of miles by cart.

The Reverend Joachim patronized education, under him the number of church schools quickly increased and they flourished. The bishop dressed poor seminarians from head to toe from his own funds; ordaining him to the priesthood, he provided him with money to start a household. He was a benefactor who did many good deeds, openly and secretly.

In 1909, Vladyka was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod and elevated to the rank of archbishop.

The people of Nizhny Novgorod immediately fell in love with him.

Archbishop Joachim (Levitsky).

In 1917, the archbishop went to the Local Council in Moscow and never returned to Nizhny Novgorod. From the Local Council he went to Crimea to visit his son and his family. They say that when all the household left for a visit and the archbishop was left alone, bandits appeared, who exactly remained unknown, and hanged him.

Bishop Neofit (in the world Nikolai Alekseevich Korobov) was born on January 15, 1878 in the village of Novoselovo, Borisoglebsk district, Yaroslavl province, into a merchant family. My father traded in meat and herbs and was the owner of two stores in St. Petersburg. After graduating from high school, Nikolai Alekseevich entered the Valaam Monastery in 1902. At the monastery he completed missionary theological courses and in 1906 was tonsured a monk and ordained a hierodeacon, and in 1910 he was ordained a hieromonk. Since 1911 - housekeeper of the Finnish Bishop's House. Since 1919 - abbot of the Boriso-Gleb Monastery. Since 1922, he was enrolled in the brotherhood of the Pokrovsky Uglichesky Monastery. On April 25, 1927, he was consecrated Bishop of Gorodets, Vicar of Nizhny Novgorod...

After the arrest of Vetluga Bishop Gregory (Kozlov), Bishop Neophytos was transferred in August 1929 to Vetluga.

The Red Terror of 1918 affected the richest and most respected people here; their graves served as the beginning of a new city cemetery.

There were many monastics and blessed people in the city who sanctified it with their prayers. Bishop Neophytos worthily entered into the prayer structure of the last Vetluga church, which soon became a martyr’s church.

One day, in one family with five children, the mother fell ill. The disease turned out to be fatal. The family's grief was great. The husband of the sick woman came to the bishop and asked to pray for her. We do not know what the humble archpastor’s prayer was, but at the next divine service the bishop announced the woman’s illness, calling on the entire church to urgently pray for her. And this prayer was heard, the woman recovered.

Bishop Neophytos was a beggar-lover and after each service, leaving the church, he gave out alms. And there was no one among his large flock who was offended by him or whom he neglected. On great holidays, he invited the poor and wretched brethren to his place for dinner.

The holy fools and the blessed came to him at any time.

Being a zealot of church piety, he also called on his flock to fulfill church rules.

The cathedral in Vetluga before its destruction in 1937.

“I will be responsible for you as your shepherd,” he said in church sermons. “The time is coming when the rules will not be followed, but among you there are many Christians who are now invisible, who in due time will be the first to go to prison as martyrs.

This time was steadily approaching. During the persecutions of 1930, the authorities decided to remove the bells from the Cathedral of Florus and Laurus. These bells were the decoration of the city; the residents of Vetluga revered them as their shrine. One weighed five hundred and sixty pounds with a very melodic ringing that could be heard twenty-five miles away.

With a terrible roar and groan, he fell down, sinking into the ground under his weight. Like a living creature, the atheists beat and tormented the bell until they broke it into small pieces.

The ruiners were visitors, and among their own were city drunkards Nikolai Galankin and Anatoly Morozov. The Lord was not slow to show His judgment on them. Nikolai Galankin soon died in an accident, and Morozov was paralyzed, and he lay motionless for forty years.

Seeing what was happening, the archpastor’s heart languished and groaned. But he knew that any word of protest would lead to arrest, and the bells would be removed anyway. But the Lord did not make him care about bells, but about living souls. The end will still be a martyrdom, but now we must humble ourselves and wait.

But among the people, for the first time, a murmur arose against the archpastor: why did he not protect the property of the people? And then the bishop came out to the pulpit and said:

Dear brothers and sisters, I am not the owner of the temple property, now the authorities are the owners here, they wanted it - they removed it, they didn’t ask me. I will soon die, but you will still live, and you will see for yourself what a terrible life will come.

Soon the atheists closed the Trinity Church, and then the cathedral.

But the deadline for the destruction of the Vetluga Church has not yet arrived. One of the pious Vetluga parishioners went to the authorities in Moscow and obtained permission to open the cathedral.

During this time, in some places the glass in the temple was broken, and although the inside was untouched, it already smelled of desolation and death.

Its rector, Fr. Alexander Zarnitsyn. He fell to his knees and cried. Protodeacon John Vozdvizhensky entered behind him and knelt down next to him.

The people, how many of them there were in the temple, began to cry.

Bishop Neophytos, seeing such love of the people for the temple of God, he himself shed tears.

In those years, Blessed Stepanida, known throughout the Vetluga region, lived in the city. She is always dressed in rags, belted with a sash. Sometimes he will put anything on his head, and sometimes even a scarf. She had a dark complexion and black hair. But when she died and lay in the coffin, her whole appearance brightened.

If someone gave her something, she would wear it out and leave it somewhere. One day they gave Stepanida a sheepskin coat, she brought it to Maria, with whom she was living at that time, and began to cut the coat and burn it in the stove. Maria woke up and asked:

What are you doing?

What are you doing! Nobody needs him.

You should at least dress warmer.

I do not need. “Nobody needs him,” she repeated. The children beat her defenselessly until she bled. She's sitting in blood, someone will come up and ask:

What are you?

Yes, the kids beat me.

Why did you give in to them?

“Yes, there were a lot of them,” she says, and she smiles. But, of course, not all the children beat her.

Stepanida often sat near the bishop’s house, and when she saw the children, she would call them over and ask:

Girls, where did you go?

To school.

What do you! Go to the lord.

“We don’t dare,” they answered.

Go, why not dare?

Why are we going to see him?

He will give you candy. He will give you sweets.

We don't dare.

Yes, go!

Let her open the gate herself and push everyone, seven or eight people, into the bishop’s yard, and she herself will start banging on the door - and so she will lead everyone to him.

Having learned that Stepanida sent them to him, the ruler will talk to everyone and give them plenty of candy.

Stepanida, when the children come out, will only smile and say:

I told you that he has a lot of sweets. One day she asked the bishop:

Let me spend the night.

Where can we spend the night? (The bishop himself lived with the owners).

“As you wish,” answered the blessed one. They made a bed for her in the hallway, at night she opened all the doors and left. One day they flooded the bishop’s owner’s bathhouse, got everything ready, and Stepanida came.

I want to wash in the bathhouse, I need to wash in the bathhouse. The bishop tells her:

Well, then, Stepanidushka, we’ll go to the bathhouse, and you’ll go too.

No,” he says, “I’ll go ahead, and you will go after.”

Okay, Stepanidushka, you go ahead, and I will follow you. Stepanida let her hosts go ahead of her to wash, the bishop kept waiting, and the blessed one said to him again:

Now I’ll go, and you’ll go after me.

Okay, go, go, Stepanida.
-
She went to the bathhouse, washed herself, poured out all the water, knocked over all the tubs and bowls, not a drop of water remained.

She came, and the bishop asked:

Well, how did you wash yourself, Stepanidushka?

I've washed myself, now you go.

He came to the bathhouse, and there wasn’t even a drop of water in the bathhouse.

Well? - Stepanida meets him. - Enjoy Your Bath. Have you washed yourself?

“I washed myself,” the bishop humbly replied, “thank you.”

Another time, on Wednesday, they heated a bathhouse for the bishop’s owners, filled the tubs with hot water, and Stepanida climbed over the fence and placed them upside down.

Lord, who did this? - someone asked.

And Stepanida replied:

There is no need to wash, he is already clean.

Why are you acting up? - the bishop asked sternly. But she didn’t answer, she just smiled.

And one day she sat with the bishop for a long time, and when she left, she piled his galoshes into his galoshes and covered his galoshes with galoshes.

He began to get ready for church and got into that galosh.

A reproach awaited him ahead - so the bishop understood.

When Stepanida died, Bishop Neophytos performed her funeral service and said a word about her. He told how, while still young, she left her home and her loved ones, among whom we, ordinary people, find support. And she placed all her trust in God. And the Lord did not disgrace her hope, strengthening her in every possible way.

Blessed Stepanida wandered for many years, spending the night on the porches of churches, taking beatings, enduring hunger and cold, but did not cease to thank God. When she asked to spend the night, people, out of love for the blessed and strangers, let her in, but she opened the doors at night and left. And she achieved that they stopped letting her into the house, and she became truly a stranger and a wanderer on earth, not having anywhere to lay her head, spending the night either under a bridge or at the gate of some house.

And throughout her difficult life, full of illnesses and sorrows, she never once complained, did not reproach anyone, but humbly carried her ascetic cross as given to her by the Lord Himself. And we believe that for this humility a great reward and endless bliss awaits her from the Lord. And someday the Church will say through the mouths of true shepherds and sincere ascetics: “Blessed Stepanida, pray to God for us.” This is how the saint ended his speech about her.

On all patronal holidays, Bishop Neophytos traveled to rural parishes. Singers traveled with him - girls of sixteen to eighteen years old. One day he stood up on the porch and said, pointing at them: “The girls are old - all the girls are old, they’re all getting married.” And those whom he pointed out later got married.

Anastasia Alekseevna Smirnova worked in a hospital and joined the trade union. Everyone around said that trade unionists would be tortured even more at the Last Judgment than collective farmers. Her heart sank with anguish - what kind of believer wants to die.

She came to the Catherine Church, stood there, crying bitterly. Abbot Dorofey approaches her and asks:

What are you doing, Nastasyushka? She said.

Well, so what,” he answered, “today you are here, and tomorrow you are not.”

After these words, she left the hospital.

After some time, she went to work. Bishop Neophyte served. Before that, she had never approached him and had never been to his home. There are people ahead; Anastasia is behind. And suddenly, after the all-night vigil, the bishop said through the entire crowd:

Nastya, Nastya, why did you leave the hospital, how will you live? The people moved aside, let her through, she approached the bishop and said:

Your Eminence Bishop, how the Lord will bless.

She soon returned to work at the hospital.

The time of suffering was approaching. On St. Seraphim of Sarov on July 19/August 1, Bishop Neophytos stood among the singers in the choir. And like a father to his children before separation, he suddenly said:

Well, my dears, I will soon die. You pray for me here, and I will pray for you there.

“Why are you, Your Eminence Vladyka, going to die,” the singers began to object, knowing that the Vladyka had never been seriously ill.

Yes, yes,” the bishop repeated, “I will die soon.”

Less than a week passed, and on August 6, 1937, the bishop was arrested. Together with him, all the priests of the Vetluga district were arrested.

Priest Vladimir Fedorovich Dranitsyn was born in the village of Spassky, Vetluzhsky district in 1902. He graduated from high school in the city of Vetluga in 1921 and was soon ordained a priest in his native village of Spasskoye.

Priest Sergiy Markovich Kislitsyn was born in 1897 into a peasant family. I only managed to graduate from parochial school. After the revolution of 1917, he was ordained a priest and served until his arrest in the village of Galkino, Vetluzhsky district.

Priest Andrei Petrovich Skvortsov was born in 1897 in the village of Markovo, Koverninsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, into a peasant family. He graduated from the parochial school. He was ordained a priest after the 1917 revolution. He served in the village of Novo-Mokrovsky, Vetluzhsky district.

Priest Grigory Ivanovich Vesnovsky was born in 1879 in the village of Belyshevo, Vetluzhsky district, into the family of a priest. After graduating from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, he was ordained a priest. He served in the village of Bogoyavlenskoye, Vetluzhsky district.

Priest Alexey Ivanovich Chudetsky was born in 1877 in the village of Minsk, Kostroma district, into the family of a priest. Graduated from Kostroma Theological Seminary. In 1932, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, which he served in a concentration camp on Bear Mountain. After his release and before his arrest, he served in the village of Belyshevo, Vetluzhsky district. The dean, priest Alexander Ivanovich Blagoveshchensky, served in the same church. Born in 1894 in the village of Georgievskoye, Vetluzhsky district, into the family of a priest. In 1916 he graduated from the Kostroma Theological Seminary and entered school as a teacher. A year later he left for Moscow and enrolled in preschool education courses, which he graduated in 1919, and returned to his homeland to teach. But the young man’s soul was not satisfied with his work at school, and at the height of persecution in 1922, Alexander Ivanovich was ordained a priest. In 1930 he was arrested for preaching, but released seven months later. He was a zealous shepherd, and not only preached sermons himself during the days of service, but also called upon the priests of his deanery to deliver sermons without fail.

Priest Alexander Pavlovich Karpinsky was born in 1887 in the city of Makaryev, Kostroma province. Graduated from two classes of theological seminary. He was ordained a priest and served in the village of Belyshevo. In 1931, he was arrested and exiled to the Narym region for three years. Upon returning from exile, he served in one of the churches in the Vetluzhsky district.

Priest John Ioannovich Sakharov was born in 1884 into a peasant family. He graduated from a rural school and was ordained to the rank of deacon. After the revolution he was ordained a priest. He served in the village of Nikolskoye, Vetluzhsky district.

Priest John Ioannovich Segotsky was born in 1881 in the village of Sobolev, Yuryevets district, Kostroma province. He graduated from four classes of theological seminary and served as a psalm-reader. After the revolution of 1917 he accepted the priesthood. In 1931 he was arrested and sentenced to two years in the camps and five years in exile. After returning from exile, he served as a priest in the church.

Priest John Vsevolodovich Rozanov was born in 1876 in the city of Vetluga into the family of a teacher. He served in the church in the village of Turan, Vetluzhsky district.

In the village of Uspenye, the priest Fr. Vladimir Slobodskoy. Everyone died in custody.

On Intercession the priests and deacons of the cathedral were arrested, in December - all the priests remaining in the city, many Orthodox laymen and the retired Bishop Fostirius (Maksimovsky).

Bishop Fostiry was born on October 21, 1864. He graduated from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, and in 1895 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1930, he was tonsured a monk and consecrated Bishop of Tomsk. In 1933 he was Bishop of Syzran, in 1934 he was retired and settled in Vetluga.

Of those who died in custody, the names of some are known. Church watchman Nikolai Nikiforovich Shumov. When the temple was closed, I prayed at home; arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison; after ten years he was sentenced a second time and died in custody. Nikolai Nikolaevich Lebedev is a church elder in the village of Temita. Servant of God Piama Dmitrievna sang in the choir.

Elder Ivan Dormidontovich from the village of Bolshevo was arrested and died in Nizhny Novgorod prison. When he was young, his parents wanted to marry him and bought him a suit. But that was not what was on his mind. In order not to violate the will of his parents, he made sure that the brides themselves abandoned him. I belted my jacket with a towel and walked through the village. The villagers, seeing him, shouted:

Ivan Dormidontovich sweetened, sweetened...

From that time on, he went to wander and wandered until his arrest. In prison he sang prayers, for which the prisoners laughed at him, but he endured all the ridicule patiently, saying: “Grief is not forever and sadness is not endless.”

The nun Vera in the World Maria Petrovna was arrested and died in prison. She was originally from the village of Baranovo. As a child, she poured hot milk on her face, and therefore it was disfigured. She lived in a convent in Sokolniki, not far from Vetluga. When the monastery was ruined in the 20s, Mother Vera settled in Pochinki, not far from Shakhunya.

She composed spiritual poems and sang them to the people who visited her - to each his own. She was arrested for her spiritual poetry and accused of religious preaching. When she was brought to prison, she did not speak to anyone and did not take rations. Soon the guards took her to a separate cell, where she died.

After the arrests of the priesthood, the head of the NKVD addressed the townspeople. They built a platform for him near the city school and gathered people. He began to read false accusations against the bishop, priests and Orthodox laity of the city. It was as if the bishop wanted to blow up the bridge, the priests set fire to collective farms, and the laity wanted to organize some kind of group and for this they went to the priests.

Some of the people said: “It was not in vain that they took it. That’s right.” The others stood silently.

Those who were arrested in Vetluga in 1937 were almost immediately subjected to torture and all kinds of torment. This is how one of those who was arrested in December 1937 remembers it. They brought me to the office. They put him facing the red-hot stove, right next to him, and left him standing there for a day. Don't you dare turn around. No food was given. A glass of water, which only inflamed my thirst.

There were no conditions for keeping a significant number of those arrested in Vetluga, and they were sent to prisons in Varnavin and Nizhny Novgorod.

The stage in which Bishop Fostiry and Nikolai Shumov walked from Vetluga to Varnavin was driven on foot. Only things were allowed to be carried on the carts.

Bishop Fostirios, tired of the hardships of imprisonment and the infirmities of age, became exhausted along the way. He was put on a cart. There were severe frosts, the bishop quickly lost his strength, and before reaching Varnavin, he froze.

The laity were kept in Varnavin prison for several months. Then we drove to the Vetlugino station to take us to the Krasnoyarsk camps. The head of the train approached the carriage where they were assembled and asked:

Bishop Fostirius (Maksimovsky).

Convicted?

No, no,” they started talking vying with each other, “everyone is not convicted.

Well, now we will judge you,” said the head of the train and began to read, asking: “So-and-so? Ten years.”

All but two or three people had ten years.

The priests were separated from the laity and placed in the Nizhny Novgorod prison.

Bishop Neophytos was kept separately from the clergy gathered together. The priests were offered to renounce their rank and God and thus gain freedom, but only one chose this disastrous path.

The bishop refused to answer the investigator's questions, accused the NKVD of arresting innocent people and bringing false charges, for which he was imprisoned in a punishment cell. The torture investigation lasted throughout August and September. Investigator Nesterov did not bother interrogating the bishop, seeking one thing - that he would sign the interrogation report drawn up and typed on a typewriter. On October 23, 1937, the bishop signed the protocol, and on October 31, the addition drawn up by the investigator to it. The ruler was accused of allegedly “carrying out active subversive work aimed at overthrowing Soviet power and restoring capitalism in the USSR,” and that he “created a church-fascist, sabotage, terrorist, espionage and insurgent organization... with a total number of over 60 participants." That he allegedly “led the preparation of terrorist attacks, the collection of espionage information, the arson of collective farms, the destruction of collective farm livestock. He transferred... espionage information to Metropolitan Sergius of Stragorodsky for transmission to the intelligence agencies of one of the foreign states.”

Based on these accusations, on November 11, 1937, the UNKVD Troika sentenced the bishop to death.

One day, from the cell where the bishop was, they knocked on the next one: “We’re leaving for Maryina Roshcha.” This meant execution. The bishop's grave is located in the prison cemetery next to the Old Believer church.

In the city of Vetluga in 1937, on the Intercession of the Mother of God, the clergy of the city cathedral were arrested.

Nun Vera (left).

Archpriest Alexander Ivanovich Zarnitsyn was born in 1871 in the city of Galich, Kostroma province, into the family of a priest. Graduated from Kostroma Theological Seminary. He served in Vetluga for almost forty years. Archpriest John Ioannovich Znamensky was born in 1875 in the village of Spas-Nodoga, Nerekhta district, Kostroma province, into the family of a priest. Graduated from Kostroma Theological Seminary. He served in Vetluga, in the villages of N.-Uspensky, Spassky, Makaryevsky and Vasilyevsky. Protodeacon John Nikolaevich Vozdvizhensky was born in 1875 in the village of Karavanovo, Kostroma district. Graduated from theological school. His son, Deacon Nikolai Ioannovich Vozdvizhensky, was born in 1901. He studied at a theological seminary, which he hardly managed to graduate from before the revolution. He served in churches as a psalm-reader. In 1932 he moved with his father to Vetluga and was ordained by Bishop Neophytos to the rank of deacon. He was not married, led a monastic life, and never drank wine.

Together with them, the regent of the cathedral, Mikhail Alekseevich Vyacheslavov, was arrested. He was born in 1888 in the village of Ilyinsky, V.-Ustyug district, into the family of a priest. Graduated from theological seminary. Before moving to Vetluga, he lived near Veliky Ustyug. He had a relative living in Vetluga, who had long offered to move in with him, speaking highly of Bishop Neophyte; in turn, he told the bishop a lot about Mikhail Alekseevich. At the end of 1936, the bishop invited Mikhail Alekseevich to Vetluga. Unrelated to his family, Mikhail Alekseevich moved to Vetluga in January 1937 and immediately began organizing singing in the cathedral.

All of them were apparently executed soon after their arrest.

It would be useful to tell here about one incident from the life of Fr. John of Znamensky. All residents of the city knew about this incident.

There was a patronal holiday - the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God. The priests, having served, left, the people still celebrated for several days.

During these days, Ivan Khomyakov, a native of the village of Glushchikha, was recruited as a soldier. He was an unbeliever, and he decided to show his unbelief by shooting at the image of the Mother of God.

The glass broke and the bullet hit the image. New glass was installed; Ivan went into the army.

He fell ill in the army. The very place on the cheek where the bullet hit in the image hurt. He was getting worse. They took me to hospitals - it didn’t help, it got even worse. Finally they wrote home to come for him. At home he was treated very diligently, but the treatment did not bring any benefit. His cheek was swollen like a pig's snout, and the ulcer constantly exuded fetid pus, which is why he had to plug it with a rag. It got to the point that his relatives refused to keep him in the house and moved him to a bathhouse.

He lay in the bathhouse for a long time, rotting, but not dying. They began to advise him: repent, because the Mother of God punished you, maybe She will forgive you.

After much suffering, he came to his senses, repented, and called Fr. John of Znamensky, confessed, took communion and died peacefully on the third day.

The sin of blasphemy may be distant from the punishment of the Lord, but it always comes, for the Lord is good and merciful.

Hegumen Dorofey (in the world Dorofey Pavlovich Pavlov) was born in 1880 in the village of Karmanovo, Oreshkovo volost, Moscow province, into a peasant family. He began his monastic service in the Valaam Monastery. He had known Bishop Neophytos since 1923, and when in 1929 the bishop invited him to move from Rostov-on-Don to Vetluga, Father Dorofey immediately agreed. In Vetluga, he first served in the Catherine Church, and then in the cathedral.

He was strict towards sinful actions, but had a soft and kind heart. Because of his kindness, children loved to come to him. And until he feeds them and gives each of them a gift, he will not let them go.

If he happened to go with pilgrims to the patronal feast of St. Macarius and stop for the night, Fr. Dorotheus will not rest until he has satisfied and comforted all the pilgrims walking with him.

The commandment of active love for one's neighbor was especially close to his heart.

Elias Monastery on Valaam. Second from the right is Abbot Dorotheos.

Bishop Neophytos (second from right), Abbot Dorotheos (left), behind him

Hieromonk Rufin (A. Demidov), Priest Vyacheslav (to the right of the bishop).

And it grieved, seeing the bitterness coming to the world. He said to Maria Golubeva:

Now you got married, became a mother, now be able to raise your children in the fear of God. The time will come - children will be thrown out of the train, everyone will suffer.

The time came, and peasants from Vetluga and the surrounding area were taken into exile by train, throwing out the dead on the road.

When my soul became sad and heavy, Fr. Dorotheus fell to God with special zeal: “God is merciful! God, I’m so tired and so weak, help me!” - and there was never a time when the Lord did not come and provide His gracious help, from which sorrow melted away.

Father Dorotheus loved to pray and prayed for a long time; often kneeling before the icon of the Savior read the akathist. In God and the Church he saw the fulfillment of all hope. “Go before it’s too late, while our churches are Orthodox,” Father Dorotheos said during his sermon, “otherwise the churches will be such that there will be no need to go there.”

There was a time when the priests of Vetluga were summoned to the police and forced to renounce the priesthood, sometimes through threats and sometimes through flattery. To the credit of the shepherds, they all showed themselves to be faithful to Christ.

The tempters said to Hegumen Dorotheus:

You are so young, so beautiful, why should you ruin yourself? Come to us, we will give you any job, work and you will live, just put the cross on the table, renounce monasticism and the priesthood.

Hegumen Dorotheos answered:

Why would I give up on God? I am alone, I have neither a wife nor children, no one will suffer because of me, I will go and die for Christ. I will not give up on God, whatever you want to do with me. And I will not take off the cross from myself.

The flattering persecutors let him go. He was arrested in October 1937 and soon, we believe, executed.

The priest Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ilyinsky was arrested along with him. He was born in 1877 in the village of Kolshevo, Kineshma district, Kostroma province, into the family of a priest. Graduated from Kostroma Theological Seminary. He served in the Trinity Church in Vetluga. In 1935, the authorities imposed such a tax on the temple that neither the priest nor the parishioners were able to pay it, and the temple was closed. Father Vyacheslav moved to the Catherine Church.

Hegumen Anthony. During the persecutions of 1929-1931, the clergy of other dioceses were exiled to Vetluga. Abbot Anthony was exiled here. At first he was sent to prison. When he was released, he was not allowed to serve, and he sang for bread in the choir.

He was simple and humble, and died on Easter in 1931. His funeral service and burial, which gathered a large crowd, turned into a visible triumph of faith over atheism and death.

Hegumen Anthony was buried next to the Vetluga blessed in the new cemetery, which originated from the graves of those executed in 1918.

Priest Mikhail Skomnitsky was born in the sixties of the 19th century in the village of Blagodatskoye, Sechenovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, into the family of a priest, Fr. John Skomnitsky.

The last ten years before the martyrdom of Fr. Mikhail served in the village of Ratovo, Sechenovsky district. He was a meek shepherd and a strict executor of the statutes of the Orthodox Church. Non-acquisitive, he lived in cramped circumstances, in a house worse than that of the last poor man, often receiving only bread for today from parishioners. But his meekness, humility and poverty looked different in the eyes of God. Elizaveta Kozlova saw Fr. Michael to those praying in the air.

How did Father please God so much? - she asked mother Fr. Mikhail.

He never began to serve without fulfilling the rules. And since childhood I have never violated Wednesday and Friday,” she answered.

Seven kilometers from Ratov, in the village of Kozlovka, a priest of a different type, Boris Mikhailovich Voznesensky, served.

During collectivization, a decree was issued according to which anyone who killed their livestock could be sentenced to prison. Father Boris slaughtered a calf, and this became known to the authorities; he was sentenced to prison. In 1937 he was released and returned to Kozlovka. But he didn’t like serving here; he wanted to go to rich Ratovo. Father Boris was young, had a wonderful voice, and part

Bishop Neophytos, Abbot Anthony.

The Ratov singers agreed to ask him to join them.

The parishioners opposed his move to Ratovo. But sin is sweet, and man is corrupt. Where sin is the law, there is faith and conscience - a changeable shirt. And about. Boris, acting in all sorts of lies, captured the temple.

Father Mikhail relented and went to serve in Kozlovka. But he only managed to serve two or three services here, and at the Transfiguration in 1937 he was arrested, and along with him the parishioners who defended him.

Father Boris was also soon arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison for participation in the murder and died in the camp as an apostate.

Investigator Komarov arrived from Nizhny to punish the believers. Those arrested were initially kept in Sechenov; many were tortured, others were tried to be persuaded by threats to cooperate with the authorities.

One day Komarov summoned a parishioner, Fr. Mikhail and began to persuade her.

Well, why did you go to church, you better go to Apollinaria Ivanovna (she was a member of the church council and collaborated with the security officers. - I.D.) and you will have everything.

Persuasion did not help, and the investigator tried to flatter.

Yes, you are religious...

What are you talking about,” she even clasped her hands, “but I’m just like everyone else.” But everyone is unbelievers, hypocrites, and Komarov went to the table to write a protocol; writes, and his face grows blacker every minute, and finally says:

Sign it.

I can't sign what I don't know.

He read that so-and-so undertakes to cooperate with the NKVD.

She doesn't sign. Komarov took out his revolver and said:

We will wipe you all off the face of the earth. You are disturbing us. We will drive you where the crows do not take bones. Not only you, but your entire family will be sickened. I won’t let you go anywhere, you won’t hide from us anywhere - our eyes see far, our ears hear far.

He talked for a long time and walked around, threatening, and finally threatened that he would shoot her now.

“I’ll fire a bullet at you,” he said, pointing his revolver.

“Come on, let it go,” she answered fearlessly.

Komarov walked around the office again, then wrote another document, stating that so-and-so undertakes not to tell anyone about what happened between her and the investigator.

In Sechenov about. Mikhail was tortured and then taken to Nizhny Novgorod prison.

One day his son Konstantin came and brought a package.

Who are you to him? - they asked him.

“Son,” he replied.

He was immediately arrested; died in custody.

In prison Fr. Mikhail was tortured for a long time, after interrogations and torture, they locked him in a narrow stone box; such boxes were called pillars. Father Mikhail died here.

Together with Fr. Mikhail were arrested and died in custody:

the elder of the temple, Cosma Boganov, who was already in old age at the time of his arrest;

Nikifor Illarionovich Shishkanov was a deeply religious man; At first he worked as a teacher, but when the school became a spreader of ignorant atheism, he was fired and worked on a collective farm as an accountant; he did not hide his faith, openly stood up for the church and Fr. Mikhail;

Regent Porfirit lived in another place before Ratov; during collectivization, his farm was plundered by the village council, and he left his native village and settled in the Ratov temple; possessed great musical talents both in the art of regency and in composing music; successfully taught church singing to parishioners;

Alexander Savelii was arrested for going to church despite threats from atheists;

member of the church council Peter Delyava;

church watchman Peter Levadonov; At the time of his arrest he was about seventy years old; he was arrested along with other men in the case of Fr. Mikhail.

After the arrest of Metropolitan Feofan, mass arrests of clergy and believers began. Among others, priest Alexander Ivanovich Krylov was arrested. He was born in 1879 in the village of Vargany, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. He served as a priest in the village of Lyapuny, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. On September 17, 1937, he was arrested on the basis of testimony extracted under torture from those arrested earlier. Father Alexander was accused of allegedly participating in the burning of twenty houses and a stack of straw in the village of Ostrovskoye, a collective farm yard in the village of Uvarovo and a mill in the village of Gugino. Father Alexander denied all accusations. On November 11, 1937, he was sentenced to death by the Troika UNKVD and executed.

Priest Pavel Vasilyevich Borisoglebsky was arrested in the same case. He was born in Vasilsursk, Nizhny Novgorod province. He served in the village of Plotinskoye, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. Father Pavel was arrested on July 24, 1937 and accused of making anti-Soviet statements while in exile in 1930-1931. He pleaded not guilty. On November 11, 1937, he was sentenced to death and executed.

Priest Porfiry Mikhailovich Kolosovsky was born in 1868 in the village of Dolgoye Pole, Nizhny Novgorod province. He served in the village of Vargany, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. He was arrested on September 17, 1937 on the basis of false testimony from a previously arrested priest, who, broken by prison detention and torture, signed all the testimony compiled by the investigator. With the charge brought against Fr. Porfiry did not agree, and investigators were unable to prove his guilt. The priest behaved courageously. On November 11, 1937, he was sentenced to death and executed.

Nikolai Fedorovich Filippov was born in 1885 in the village of Makaryevo, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. He lived all his life in Makaryev, and when the flames of persecution flared up in 1937, he was the headman in the church of his native village. On September 13, 1937, he was arrested. He rejected all the charges brought against him and was sentenced to death and executed on November 11, 1937.

Priest Mikhail Petrovich Adamontov was born in 1892 in the Nizhny Novgorod province. He served in the village of Berendeevka, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. On September 15, 1937 he was arrested. He pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to death and executed.

On the same day, Deacon Ioann Ioannovich Moshkov, who served in the village of Isady, Lyskovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Region, and Deacon Veniamin Ksenofontovich Vladimirsky, who served in the village of Prosek, Lyskovsky District, were arrested. On September 13, in the village of Ivanovskoye, Lyskovsky district, a religious woman, Elizaveta Ivanovna Sidorova, was arrested. The investigator had no evidence of their guilt. Despite the torture, those arrested steadfastly resisted the slander. Among twenty-one people, they were sentenced to death and executed. In the same case, the priest of the village of Valki, Lyskovsky district, Alexey Andreevich Molchanov, who did not sign false testimony, was arrested.

In June 1937, on the basis of the testimony of two workers obtained in the dungeons, the priests of the Lyskovsky district were arrested. They were accused of setting fire to houses that belonged to collective farmers. Among others, priest Valentin Ivanovich Nikolsky was arrested. He was born in 1885 in the village of Linevo, Bor district, Nizhny Novgorod province. He served in the village of Trofimovo, Lyskovsky district. He denied all the charges and did not sign false evidence against the other defendants. On September 21, the NKVD Troika sentenced Fr. Valentina to be shot. On October 4, the sentence was carried out.

At the end of July - beginning of August 1937, arrests were made among the clergy and Orthodox laity in the Avtozavodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod. They were accused of participating in a church counter-revolutionary group. Orthodox layman Iakov Ivanovich Gortinsky, a hospital mechanic who lived in the village of Gnilitsa on the outskirts of Nizhny Novgorod, and nun Anna (Yezhova) who lived in the same village, denied their guilt to the end and refused to testify against anyone. On August 21, they were sentenced to death and executed.

From August 5 to 7, 1937, clergy and Orthodox laymen of Nizhny Novgorod were arrested: priest Ioann Mikhailovich Lazarev (born in 1876 in the village of Kurmysh, Nizhny Novgorod province); priest Pyotr Ivanovich Sakharovsky (born in 1876 in Nizhny Novgorod, served in the Nizhny Novgorod Spassky Church); priest John Nikolaevich Nikolsky (born in 1868 in the village of Cemeteries, Sergach district, Nizhny Novgorod province); priest Andrei Nikolaevich Benediktov (born in the village of Voronin, B.-Murashkinsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province); priest Alexander Nikolaevich Belyakov (born in 1890 in Nizhny Novgorod); Deacon Andrei Evgenievich Batistov (born in 1871); Orthodox laymen A.D. Ovsyannikov, A.N. Nikolsky and V.S. Tsvetkov. None of them agreed to either sign the slander the investigators were leveling against them, or to incriminate others. Father Pyotr Sakharovsky even tried to convince the investigators that there were no anti-Soviet organizations in Nizhny Novgorod and that they were unlikely to be possible. It was all in vain. On September 21, everyone was sentenced to death and executed.

In August 1937, the clergy of Nizhny Novgorod were arrested. They were accused of protesting against the closure of the temple.

Priest Viktor Vladimirovich Lebedev (born in 1872 in the village of Belavka, Vorotynsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province; was first arrested in 1929 and sentenced to three years of exile); priest Makariy Vasilievich Kryazhev (born in 1884 in the village of Liski, Ostrogozhsky district, Voronezh province, in 1927 he was sentenced to three years of exile); priest Nikolai Ivanovich Nadeshov (born in 1878 in the village of Vedeneevo, Gorodets district, Nizhny Novgorod province); priest John Nikolaevich Satirsky (born in 1889 in the village of Veldemanovo, Perevozsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province); Deacon Pavel Veniaminovich Arkhangelsky (born in 1887 in the village of Akulino, Salgan district, Nizhny Novgorod province). All of them denied the charges brought against them. On September 8, 1937, they were sentenced to death and executed.

On September 8, 1937, clergy and Orthodox laymen of the Gaginsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, ten people in total, were arrested. None of those arrested pleaded guilty. They were accused of organizing a solemn service on July 6, in which four priests and many believers participated. And although after the service there was no sermon on a political topic, the church service itself was given the significance of an anti-state event, because it separated the peasants from work on the collective farm. On September 17, 1937, eight people were sentenced to death and executed. Their names were preserved in investigative files: priest Ioann Dmitrievich Romashkin (born in 1891 into a peasant family, first arrested in 1928 and sentenced to three years of exile; served in the village of Subbotino); priest of the village of Sorochki Pyotr Ivanovich Lebedinsky (born in 1881 into the family of a priest, in 1935 he was sentenced to two years of exile for preaching); priest of the village of Yusupov Nikolai Aleksandrovich Khvoshchev (born in 1883 in the family of a priest);

priest of the village of Panova-Osanova Alexander Semenovich Nikolsky (born in 1883 in the family of a priest); peasants of the village of Pokrov Alexander Ivanovich Blokhin, Pyotr Vasilyevich Lonskov, Stefan Semenovich Mityushin and Vasily Kireevich Yezhov.

In September-October 1937, twelve priests of the Balakhninsky district, the headman of the church in the village of Petrushino and the chairman of the church council were arrested. They were accused of being members of a church organization headed by Metropolitan Feofan of Nizhny Novgorod. The investigation lasted two months for some, ten days for others. Many behaved with dignity, we give their names. Priest Konstantin Vasilyevich Pokrovsky (born in 1896 in the village of Solonikha, Spassky district, Nizhny Novgorod province); priest Vladimir Fedorovich Barminsky (born in 1889 in the village of Slobodskoye, Nizhny Novgorod province); Chairman of the Church Council Konstantin Isakovich Solovyov (born in 1892 in the village of Sosnovskaya, Nizhny Novgorod province). On October 29, everyone was sentenced to death and executed.

On the night of October 20-21, 1937, the priests of the Perevozsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region were arrested. The investigation lasted less than a month, and on November 11 everyone was sentenced to death and executed. Here are the names of those who rejected the charges brought against them. Priest Alexander Ivanovich Ilyinsky was born in 1899 in the village of Pustyn, Nizhny Novgorod province. He served in the village of Bolshiye Kemary. He was accused, like others, of being the leader of an anti-Soviet group and expressing dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime. Priest Alexander Mikhailovich Kurmyshsky was born in 1879 in the city of Simbirsk, graduated from theological seminary, and served in the church in the village of Tanaykovo. Priest Pavlin Ivanovich Staropolev was born in 1865 in the village of Bykovy Gory, Spassky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, graduated from theological seminary, and served in the village of Dubskoye. Priest Nikolai Alekseevich Troitsky was born in 1885 in the village of Lobaski, Ichalkovsky district in Mordovia, and served in the village of Revezen.

On November 3, 1937, priests who served in churches in the Borsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region were arrested: priest Alexander Nikolaevich Luzin (born in 1882 in the village of Vyezdnaya Sloboda); priest Vladimir Ilyich Grigoriev (born in 1884); priest Sergei Alekseevich Borisov (born in 1880 in the village of Zaskochikha); priest John Andreevich Militsii (born in 1898 in Zalessk district). They were accused of spreading anti-Soviet rumors. They refused to confirm the charges and give evidence. They were sentenced to death and executed.

In October - November 1937, mass arrests wiped out the clergy and Orthodox laity of the Semenovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Twenty-six people were arrested in one case. Eight of them were sentenced to death on November 6, 1937, the rest to various terms of imprisonment. Of all those executed in this case, only Elizaveta Nikolaevna Samovskaya did not sign the charges. She was a deeply religious woman who came from a noble family; she was seventy-seven years old at the time of her arrest. The investigators, Komarov and Dakhnovsky, accused her of having many acquaintances among the clergy and having a bad temper, allowing herself to say out loud everything she thinks.

In the fall of 1937, Archbishop Alexander Bogoroditsky, vicar of Nizhny Novgorod (in the world Alexander Andreevich Pokhvalinsky) was arrested. Nine priests, three deacons and an elder from Nizhny Novgorod were arrested in the same case with him. Three of them refused to sign the investigation reports - priest Evgeniy Nikanorovich Yakovlev (he was eighty-one years old); priest Vasily Nazarovich Zavgorodniy, who served in the New Cemetery Church, and the elder of the Baptist Church Anisiya Ivanovna Maslanova. On December 2-3, 1937, all those arrested by decision of the Special Troika of the UNKVD were sentenced to death and executed.

The dean of the churches of the city of Semenov, Nizhny Novgorod region, priest Alexander Petrovich Menshikov, was born in 1892 in the village of Motaki, Spassky district, Kazan province. Since the summer of 1936 he served in the church in the city of Chkalovsk. On August 26, 1937, he was arrested. After the arrest, investigators discovered that they did not have any evidence incriminating Fr. Alexandra in anti-Soviet activities. Then two false witnesses were found who testified that Fr. Alexander made anti-Soviet statements. Fr. himself Alexander denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. On September 26 he was sentenced to death.

The priest, Fr. Mikhail and elder Vasily Pankov from the village of Mitropole, deacon from the village of Krasnoye.

For three days they were kept standing, not allowed to sit down or lean against anything, so that the skin on their legs burst and ichor oozed out.

Here there is torment, and godlessness is having fun - accordion, songs, investigators have put delicious food on the table - eat, drink. Just sign the cooperation paper.

Well, aren’t you ashamed to stand here?” the guard reproaches the girl standing next to the priests. “Some of your people are having fun, and you’re standing here.”

Their feet are dancing, but mine are standing, I will be silent, and you will walk,” she answered.

C'mon, speak.

What am I going to tell you? When the investigator comes, when he brings the paper, takes the pen, then I will speak, but what will I tell you? Soon Komarov came and started beating her.

Why are you beating me?” asked the confessor. He didn’t answer, and she said: “I won’t be like you, but you will be like me.”

And indeed, he was soon arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. They met in the camp, Komarov approached her and said:

It's me, your "benefactor".

Don't know.

Yes Komarov. I kicked your legs.

Ah, the Lord visited. Once you've visited, it's good, here's your ration. It’s good that you came here, it means you’re happy.

He didn't understand her.

Father Mikhail from the village of Mitropole, headman Vasily and deacon from the village of Krasnoye were soon transferred to the Arzamas prison. In those years, the torturers threw the priests head down from a steep staircase and beat them mercilessly, pulling out their beards, so that not only the investigative rooms, but also the stairs were covered in blood. All three were tortured.

In the same year, priest Mikhail Preobrazhensky, who served in the village of Lopatino, Sechenovsky district, was arrested and died in custody.

Father Mikhail Skomnitsky loved to receive strangers. Hieromonk Joasaph (in the world John Dodonov) often came to him. He was a meek and humble monk. He was born in the fifties of the 19th century in the village of Baltinka, Sechenovsky district. After the death of his wife, he went to the Alatyr Trinity Monastery, where he labored until it was closed. He was a priest in the village of Novatsky, and then left the ministry due to weakness. He was arrested in the village of Maidany on the patronal feast of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and taken to Sechenovo; From there those arrested were taken to Arzamas, where soon Fr. Joasaph was martyred.

That same year, Hieromonk Lev from the Sarov Monastery was killed during interrogation in the Arzamas prison.

The wanderer Euphemia died in the same prison. She was originally from Chuvashia, graduated from college, but for the sake of Christ she left everything and went to wander. Her brother was an investigator in this prison and treated his sister and other Christians with special hatred; and no threats or torture could break her. “Whatever you want to do with me, I won’t sign your papers,” she said.

It is impossible to describe the hundreds of martyrs who died in Arzamas. Let's talk about one thing.

In the early thirties, during the persecution of the church, there was not enough space in the prison, and the authorities allocated the huge Arzamas Cathedral as a prison.

In 1932, confessor Hieromonk Serapion (in the world Stepan Ivanovich Oskin) died here.

He was born into a pious peasant family in the village of Novatsky, Nizhny Novgorod province.

Almost every Orthodox parent wants someone from the family to take upon themselves the feat of pure service to the Lord and pray not only for themselves, but also for loved ones. Ivan Oskin wanted this too. And then one day he gathered all the children - four daughters and three sons - and asked:

Will any of you go to the monastery?

Everyone refused, and only the youngest, Stepan, came forward and said quietly:

Father, I will go to the monastery.

Stepan graduated from the Arzamas seminary and labored in a monastery. After the destruction of the monastery, he served in the church in the village of Yazykova and was arrested along with other confessors in 1932, having decorated monastic robes with the feat of confession.

Hieromartyrs John Flerov and John Bystroe. Priest John Flerov was the builder and first minister of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Semyany, Vasilsursky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. The church was built and consecrated shortly before the 1917 revolution. Having consecrated the temple, Fr. John said: “My church will stand for a long time, and no one will approach it.” This was fulfilled, but the rector himself was arrested in the winter of 1918 and taken to Vasilsursk; he was then forty years old.

In the Vasilsur prison he was tortured for a long time, often summoned for interrogation, demanding that he renounce Christ or the priesthood. The priest did not agree. And then Fr. John was taken to the cemetery and ordered to dig a grave. Having dug it out, he began to pray. And when he finished, he said: “I’m ready.” He was killed by a volley in the back.

After his death, the temple found a representative before God. For a long time the atheists could not close it, and when they closed it, they could not destroy it, but they wanted to, because the temple was a reproachful monument to people's construction - the builders themselves and the peasant donors were still alive.

But the parishioners did not give up the keys. A believing friend will come to Tatyana, the keeper of the keys, and say:

Tatyana, they will take you and me anyway.

Well, let them take it, we’ll leave not for anyone, but for God,” Tatyana will answer.

During one of the persecutions, the cunning chairman of the village council called Tatyana to him and said:

Tatyana, you have the key, come on, we need to open the church.

You're lying, you won't open the church now, I won't give you the key. At least put me and my whole heap in jail, but I won’t give you the key until you announce that there will be a service in the church.

The chairman backed down, and the church survived unbroken until its opening in the forties.

In this village, priest John Bystrov was born in 1888 (9?).

The parents of Fr. John had only daughters, but they wanted a son, and the mother earnestly prayed to God for this, making a vow that if a boy was born, he would be dedicated to the Lord, and when he was born, they named him John.

After graduating from high school, John became a teacher in his native village.

The construction of the temple and the service of a zealous shepherd in it had a considerable influence on the young teacher. It was clear that only with God could upbringing be successful, because only love could be its basis.

John Quick.

Possessing noticeable talents as an educator, he soon became famous among teachers, and those around him predicted a glorious future for him. It seemed that he had found himself in what he loved; the vows made before his birth were forgotten. But the Lord Himself reminded of Himself. More and more often, John remembered the word given by his mother, and became more and more painfully worried about the thought of his unfaithfulness to God. No matter how successful his future life may be, it will be worthless if it is built on a shifting foundation of untruth. And when John was twenty-seven years old, he said to his mother:

Mom, I have to fulfill my promise. I want it that way myself.

He got married, was ordained and began to serve in the village of Sakanakh, Nizhny Novgorod diocese.

It was a happy family in every way. He and his wife had eight children, and mutual love reigned in the family. With a rare measure Fr. John was prudently strict and fair towards the children, and the children loved him. He never forgot that he was not only a father, not only a teacher, but also a priest - a model of morality for everyone around him. And although it was doubly difficult for the family in those years due to the persecution that befell it due to the fact that John became a priest, he never regretted that he had fulfilled his mother’s vow. No persecution, no oppression from the godless authorities scared him. Persecuted by the authorities, he had to change several parishes. The last place of his ministry was the church in the village of Arapovo, Bogoroditsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese.

Pedagogical fame protected him for some time, but at the end of the thirties, arrest inevitably hung over him. Some of the government officials tried to persuade Fr. John to leave the temple and return to teaching, promising that his priesthood will not be mentioned, he will be made the director of the school, and with his abilities all roads will be open to him. Otherwise, arrest cannot be avoided. Listening to this, mother rushed to persuade her husband to leave church and go to school; she reminded him of the children, begging him with tears to take pity on them. But as before, so now the shepherd remained firm in his decision to serve God. With meekness and love he said:

The Lord will not leave, he will bring all the children into the people.

On September 11, 1938, on John the Faster, he was arrested. When the security officers arrived, the service was going on, and they did not dare to interrupt it, they left the church and settled nearby, waiting for the priest.

Father John was imprisoned in Nizhny Novgorod prison.

The death of him and with him many other priests of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, arrested in 1937 - 1938, was as follows. They were all taken to the middle of the Volga near the city of Bor, not far from Nizhny. The bound priests were pushed into the water one by one, making sure that no one swam out; Those who floated out were drowned. And so everyone was tortured.

Priest Alexander Validov was born into the family of a priest of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, Alexei Validov.

Marvelous and reliable is the world where God’s holy people live, for their sake the Lord endures the world, awaiting its repentance. One of these people of God lived in Nizhny Novgorod, struggling in the feat of foolishness. One day, priest Alexei came to the city with his teenage son. They are walking down the street, and a holy fool meets them. He bowed to them to the ground and said:

Hello.

“Hello,” answered the father and son.

“You are Alexander,” the blessed one pointed to the boy, “you are the first and the last.”

What? - they didn’t understand.

You, Alexander, are the first and the last, do you hear? - the blessed one repeated persistently.

Father and son looked at each other in bewilderment, and Alexander asked:

How did you know that my name is Alexander?

I know. You are Alexander, and you are Alexey. Remember, Alexander, you are the first and the last,” he repeated.

Alexander understood the meaning of these words when they began to come true. At one time, he became the first priest in the newly built church in the village of Lisya Polyany, serving there until its closure in 1937. In 1943, the destroyed temple caught fire due to a lightning strike. At the end of the forties, the remains of the temple were used as a club.

After graduating from the seminary and receiving a blessing for the priesthood, Alexander began to look for a bride. He heard that Vladimir Ivanovich Pomerantsev’s nieces and sisters lived nearby. Their father died, and Vladimir Ivanovich took them in with him. Father Alexey and his son came to visit them. We sat down and put on the samovar. Alexander liked Alexandra and asked her to be his wife. But she didn’t want to:

It’s too early for me,” she made excuses.

And then her mother, Olga Ivanovna, fell on her knees in front of her and began to ask:

Sasha, my blessing for you to go. Given your orphanhood, you cannot find a better groom. He will be a priest, he is a positive person, what else do you need? I ask you to go for him.

Alexandra obeyed. They lived well. They had a large family, four sons and three daughters, the latter born in 1913.

Upon the ordination of Fr. Alexander began to serve in the village of Lisya Polyany. From the first day of his ministry, he decided not to take any specific payment from anyone for his services. Sometimes they would ask him:

How old are you, father?

Yes, how much will you give?

Yes, there is no money.

And you don’t need anything; when you are out of need, then you will give it away. If you don’t give it back, there’s no need.

Alexandra objected:

Take at least some. Father Alexander answered:

You are fed, shod, dressed. But they don't. They are starving. And my law, my faith tells me that I must give to the poor, feed.

When during Peter's Fast or Easter they went from house to house with prayer services, the parishioners brought a mountain of bread into the entryway. Father Alexander went with prayer services and told the poorest, the widows, to come in the evening for bread.

In the evening he and his mother will put a bag on each of them and just ask:

Will you tell? So go.

In his house, Fr. Alexander gave shelter to Matrona Gorbunova. Her husband died early, and she raised her son Mikhail alone. Mother Alexandra sewed clothes for him at her husband’s request, so that they would be no different from the clothes of their children.

Orphans, widows, the offended - everyone came to him for advice and help.

She lived in the village of Annushka. She had an illegitimate girl, Vera. The cross at that time was double - the cross of shame and poverty. A rich man, Vasily, lived in a village. He had forty sheep, two cows, and a thresher. At that time, for these places, he was a wealthy man. His wife, Ekaterina, was sick all the time. Annushka was feeding near this man. In the winter I looked after my sick wife and in the summer I worked in the fields. She came one day and said:

Vasily Fedorovich, I came to tell you that today I won’t come to weed millet.

I, Vasily Fedorovich, fell ill.

What made you sick?

Don't know. I fell ill. I can't do it.

His wife was a God-fearing woman and says:

Vasily Fedorovich, I’ll cut her half a loaf of bread.

No, you can’t cut it off, I won’t feed lazy people.

Vasily Fedorovich, I’m sick, I’ll come tomorrow. Ekaterina says:

I'll give her half a loaf of bread, because she asks.

No, you won't. He didn’t give it to me and forbade his wife. Anna went to Fr. Alexandru.

Mother began to treat her, Fr. Alexander gave her four loaves of bread and a bucket of flour and said:

Annushka, as soon as you eat, come to us again. She wanted to bow at her feet, but he did not order:

No, no, don’t bow at your feet. I am a Christian and I have a duty to feed the hungry and comfort the offended.

And o. Alexander had to borrow money from Vasily Fedorovich himself more than once.

Seeing that Annushka left the priest with bread, Vasily Fedorovich angrily walked towards him:

Why did you give it to her? Now she won’t come to work with me for a week. Father Alexander uncovered his head, bowed to him and said:

Vasily Fedorovich, forgive me for Christ’s sake if I have offended you in any way. I fed the hungry, she came to me and cried. I hope that I will come to you and ask and you will give.

No, now I won’t give it to you, because you provided her with bread and she won’t come at all.

Father Alexander bowed to him and again asked for forgiveness.

Fr. was not only merciful. Alexander, but also a peacemaker, as Christ once commanded.

A hundred miles from Lisikh Polyany lived a rich man, Alexei Maksimovich. And so he loved to talk with Fr. Alexander, that even a hundred miles was not a hindrance for him. And then grief happened in his family. His daughter Antonina gave birth to an unmarried child. The angry father whipped her and said:

Get out of my house, Tonka, and don’t appear before my eyes until I’ve completely killed you, and I’ll kill your child even without you. She flushed and said:

Well, daddy, mommy, forgive me, for Christ’s sake, you won’t see me again.

She got ready and left.

Soon after her departure, Alexey Maksimovich began to think about everything that had happened, and he remembered the words more and more anxiously: “You won’t see me again.” Is she really going to commit suicide? And a double anxiety, darker and more viscous than that of shame, squeezed my heart.

He got ready and hurried to Fr. Alexandru and told him everything.

Go, Alexey Maksimovich, and catch up with her.

Father, where can I find her?

Go, Alexey Maksimovich, find her today and say: “Tonyushka, forgive me, I was angry, I couldn’t resist, let’s go home, the child is crying, your brainchild is crying for you.”

“I won’t go,” the wayward old man became stubborn.

If you don’t go, you will kill not one, but two souls. If she drowns herself, then how?.. She sinned, accepted shame, and you beat her. Why did you beat her?! She's already unhappy!

She won't go. She's afraid of me now. I said: “I’ll kill you if you show up.”

And you fall at her feet and say: “Forgive me, daughter, for Christ’s sake, forgive me; I’m a sinner, I beat you, you unfortunate thing.” Go and bring her home.

He obeyed and brought his daughter home. The next morning they came to Fr. Alexandru. Antonina bowed at the priest’s feet and said:

Father, you saved my life, I wanted to drown myself: they don’t keep me at home, they took my child away...

And I, father, wanted to kill her, but she was a painfully beautiful daughter, and the child didn’t kill her.

The Lord took you away from this sin. She, Alexey Maksimovich, committed a sin and accepted shame for it, and you still beat her down. And her sin is not unforgiven, it is a redeemable sin...

In the second half of the twenties, Fr. Alexander began to be pressed with taxes and extortions. The new authorities oppressed the church worse than the Tatars; those left them so that they would have something to take next time - these ruined them to the bottom. They come and say:

Dad, put a bucket of honey!

To the board.

Having chosen everything, they drew up an accusation: a malicious defaulter, an opponent of the Soviet regime, does not provide honey. Father Alexander, having read about honey, said:

You go and take it yourself if you find at least a spoonful of honey. If you find me, then take me away as a liar. Take all the bees too.

They did not want to go, but demanded that he sign the charge. I thought: should I sign such a paper? But he decided that if he didn’t sign, they would sign him themselves and arrest him anyway. And he signed.

“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Soon the chairman of the village council, Titov, shot the poor man and was himself arrested; O. Alexander remained free.

In 1929, atheists arrived in the village to remove the bells. The men gathered with pitchforks and stakes and were determined to drive away the godless crows that had flown down to peck at the shrine and destroy the people's property. Father Alexander stopped:

Let every soul obey those in power. And you will be jailed, and they will blame me for it. Whatever you want, this is God’s work, not ours.

The bells were removed and the service continued.

How does the seed of good grow in a person’s soul and how does the seed of evil grow? God sees growth in both. Mikhail Gorbunov, who once found shelter in the family of a priest, grew up, joined the Communist Party, became the chairman of the village council and now ruined and dispossessed.

Knowing that Fr. Alexander will be deprived of property and shelter, he came early that day and said:

Can I have some tea?

The priest's household began to fuss, set up the samovar, and began to prepare food for the table when eight people entered the house. Father Alexander invited them to share the meal, but they refused, saying:

Stop drinking tea, you've taken a sip of yours.

They brought with them that same Anna, about whom there are so many people. Alexander was a benefactor, and they intended to settle her in the priest's house. As if in fulfillment of some ritual, Nikolai Vankov ordered her:

Anna, take down the icons, chop them, and melt the flood.

Nikolai Andreevich, I won’t cut down icons. Alexander Alekseevich is my benefactor.

No, he is my benefactor. I wouldn’t be able to raise my daughter without him. Nikolai Vankov and Mikhail Gorbunov and their assistants removed icons, paintings, and books from the walls. Vankov brought an ax from the yard and began chopping the icons. Father Alexander said:

Nikolai Andreevich, why do you want to heat the stove with these things? They could be given to a museum. They would still be useful. If you have firewood, use it to burn.

“You’re not the boss here,” Vankov answered, putting the chopped icons into the oven.

The day before his arrest, he was visited by the servant of God Anastasia, who was helping the family of Fr. Vyacheslav Leontyev, after whose arrest she looked after his mother Zoya. Father Alexander was ill. Anastasia began to feel sorry for him and said that maybe he wouldn’t be arrested when he was sick.

No, they don’t feel sorry for anyone and don’t want to see anything. Tomorrow I will be arrested.

The next morning the policeman took him to prison. The daughter collected and carried the parcel.

Is Validov here? - she asked at the window.

Here is the transfer to him.

No transmissions. I ate my own.

Tell me, will they keep him here or send him away?

Come the day after tomorrow.

And the warden slammed the window.

A day later she came with Mother Fr. Vasily from the village of Andosova, who was arrested at the same time. But the authorities announced that they had been sent the day before.

After Stalin's death, relatives tried to find out about the fate of Fr. Alexandra, they received an answer that he was sentenced to imprisonment in the Far Eastern camps without the right of correspondence (that is, shot).

Priest Vasily Voskresensky served in the village of Pilna, Nizhny Novgorod region, in the Church of Elijah the Prophet. In 1921, the temple burned down, but a new one was built in its place, which immediately after construction was completed, the atheists took it away and, after destroying the dome, adapted it for a school. The Orthodox moved to a wretched temporary shelter.

First time o. Vasily was arrested in the twenties and sentenced to five years, after which he returned to the village.

The parishioners asked Fr. Vasily to serve with them. In 1937, together with Deacon Alexander Fr. Vasily was arrested; both of them died in custody.

Archpriest Nikandr and his wife Alexandra were arrested in the village of Knyazhikha, Pilnensky district.

In all likelihood, Fr. Nikandr soon died in prison, and Mother Alexandra stayed in the camp for seven years and died shortly before liberation.

Priest Pyotr Kochetkov served in the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Pozharki, Sergach district. He was arrested in 1935-1936 and died in custody.

Priest Peter was arrested in the village of Ilyina Gora, Kurmysh region - and unknown.

Archpriest John Maslovsky was born in the Nizhny Novgorod province. He graduated from the Theological Academy and served in the village of Shokhino for more than forty years. The parish was poor, Fr. Joanna was big, and he had to be a peasant.

One winter he got lost, didn’t know how to get out, and then he prayed to Nicholas the Wonderworker: “Don’t let me die unprepared, not cleansed by repentance.” And through the prayers of the saint, he went to the village where his brother served as a priest.

During the persecutions of the twenties, he was summoned by the authorities three times and forced to renounce God.

He didn't agree. And the situation became more and more difficult. Fearing persecution, the family began to force them to renounce. The world was approaching from all sides like an evil robber.

Father John did not give in to the requests and was soon arrested and died in custody.

Archpriest Alexander Kasatky graduated from the Theological Academy and served in Nizhny Novgorod. According to the recollections of those who knew him, he was quiet and meek. During the persecution he was arrested and exiled. After serving his exile, he returned home. His house was occupied, the tenant reported him, and Fr. Alexander was arrested again;

died in custody.

Priests: Nikolai Pokrovsky, Dimitry Orlovsky and Leonid Arkhangelsky were arrested in the thirties. Leonid Arkhangelsky signed a renunciation, hoping to get a good place, and was released, but later he was arrested again and sent to a camp, where he died.

Two other priests died in custody as confessors.

Priest Fr. Simeon, a Mari by nationality, served in the village of Lezhnevo, Sharangovsky district. Arrested in 1930.

The elder of the temple, John Lezhnin, was arrested along with him. The goal of the atheists was to close the temple. The headman was accused of illegally making crosses and imprisoned in Yaran prison. The torturers failed to persuade the confessor to self-incriminate himself, and he was sentenced to three years in prison;

died in the prison of the city of Vyatka.

The priest Simeon was imprisoned in the Arkhangelsk camps, where his large flock went to see him. He managed to escape from prison, and although the jailers made a lot of effort to find him, the search remained unsuccessful.

Together with the priest Fr. Nikifor and several peasants Fr. Simeon went deep into the forest. Here they dug caves and built a monastery. They lived here for more than one year. We got a cat. Once, it was in the early forties, a hunting dog chased a cat, and after it the hunters came across the hermits. They reported the monastery to the authorities. All those hiding were arrested and shot.

Priest Ioann Makarov was arrested in the thirties. He comes from the village of Baltinka. He served near the city of Yadrin. Died in custody.

After the arrests of several priests in the village, the bishop sent a priest from Sergach, but the parishioners asked to appoint their own village one - Pyotr Danilovich Platonov. The bishop agreed. Father Peter served until the church was closed in 1937. Having learned that they were going to arrest him, he disappeared into the forest, where he lived until his death.

His parishioners buried him openly, many people gathered, and the authorities did not dare to interfere.

Hieromonk Savva is a relative of Fr. Peter, was arrested and died in custody.

Priest Mikhail Kozlov and his son, regent Vladimir. The village is unhappy and the parish is poor when they are deprived of a real shepherd. Nothing gets done in such a village, and life, like rotten fabric, creeps away in different directions. There is no spiritual success, no material well-being.

If a zealous, but young and inexperienced shepherd ends up in such a village, then, faced with difficulties and oppressive work, he begins to lose heart and strives to leave for an easier parish. And over time, such a village seems to be enveloped in a gray, loveless gloom.

The righteous and saints are like stars in the sky; it is emptiness to live gloomily and uninvitingly where a sky without stars is spread over a person.

The village of Boryatino was so unhappy and unlucky. There were two hundred houses in it, there was land, but there was never any wealth. And worthy shepherds did not come here, and unworthy ones quickly abandoned it, and the unfortunate flock remained without spiritual nourishment. The only joy was that during the kulakization in the late twenties, only ten households were registered as kulak and their owners were not sent to Siberia, but were allowed to settle in neighboring areas.

In 1918, the parish priest in Boryatin renounced his priesthood and fled with the psalm-reader. Then the priests changed frequently. During the difficult years for the peasants (1928 -1932), the church was left completely without a priest and remained so until the mid-thirties, when the last priest in the village, Fr. Mikhail Kozlov. He was originally from the village of Poretsky, unlike Boryatin, a pious large village.

Son o. Mikhail Vladimir was also once a priest, had a family, four children, but, having become a widow, he was captivated by a passion for a young girl who sang in the choir, who naturally had a voice of wondrous beauty. Father Vladimir resigned from the priesthood and got married. Having found what he desired, he did not deceive himself, knowing that he had chosen the worst, preferred earthly to heavenly, passionate, slavish to free. Now Vladimir served as regent in his father’s church. He was a zealous regent and did not want to leave the temple under any circumstances. Pointing to the new gentlemen - the godless collective farm authorities - proudly walking around the village, Vladimir said: “And I could walk around with a folder, but I’d rather serve God. Even though I’m a sinner, I’m God’s.”

In 1937, Fr. Mikhail and his son Vladimir were arrested.

In prison, the atheists offered Vladimir to renounce his faith, promising freedom, but he preferred a more profitable bargain, purchasing the first clothes for his soul at the cost of martyrdom. Fr. also died in prison with him. Michael.

Priest Alexander Voskresensky served in the village of Panovo, Arzamas district. He was shot along with his son Peter in September 1918 for religious preaching.

The priest Lebedev of the village of Ezdokovo, Arzamas region, the deacon, bell ringer Ivan Ivanovich Konovalov and the nuns who lived at the church were arrested in 1937. There was no news of them after they were imprisoned.

Priest John Khodorovsky was an emigrant, but in 1921 he returned to Russia illegally, was arrested and sent into exile, where he secretly received ordination to the priesthood, and then fled and wandered for a long time. Arriving in Arzamas, Fr. John found shelter with nun Terentyeva. For some time she hid him as a fugitive, but later Fr. John stopped hiding and gained universal respect. In his dealings with people he was gentle, responsive, met any request halfway and fulfilled all requests without refusal. Lived Fr. John was in the world according to the rules of hermits and was preparing to accept the monastic schema. He was accused of distributing anti-Soviet leaflets with the help of traveling religious preachers and belonging to the church headed by Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh). Shot in Arzamas in 1938.

Priest Porfiry Ustinov was born in the eighties of the 19th century, and was ordained to the church in the village of Kamenki, Nizhny Novgorod province.

U o. Porfiria had two children. But his heart was not drawn to the happiness of family life, but to heroism. During Lent, he went to church every evening and prayed there until two in the morning. Throughout Lent, he and his wife Alexandra ate only prosphora and bread, and during the first week they did not eat at all.

Time has not preserved the details of the short ministry of Fr. Porfiry, but one story is known from his family life, which depicts the humble appearance of an Orthodox ascetic.

During night prayers in the temple, Fr. Porfiry himself read psalms, canons and akathists. Irritation began to grow in Alexandra's heart - she wanted to read in church, but the priest did not offer it. Due to her youth and spiritual inexperience (she was then twenty-two years old), she decided to try her hand at independent spiritual achievement and came to her husband:

Father, I will go wandering. Bless.

“I bless you, go,” Fr. answered meekly. Porfiry. The children stayed with their father. Alexandra went to wander with her spiritual sisters, and they wandered for about a year.

One day they found a great ascetic who lived in the forest. The monk came out to meet the wanderers, led them to the cell, and, turning to Alexandra, said:

I’m full of flies, I can’t go into my cell... She abandoned her ascetic and came to me. “Don’t leave your father,” he addressed everyone, “he is a true ascetic of Christ.”

And then he tapped Alexander on the head with his finger and said:

They came out of the forest. Alexandra decided to return home. And on time. Several days passed after her return, and she suddenly became blind.

Father Porfiry did not reproach her for her long absence; he led the same lifestyle - he prayed diligently at night and fasted. Alexandra began to go to church with him, listened to the reading, but due to her blindness she could no longer read. A little time passed, and she memorized the Psalter, seven akathists, the main canons and the Midnight Office with the seventeenth kathisma, the reading of which became a great consolation and support for her after the death of her husband.

Father Porfiry did not serve long in the church. During the persecution of the Church in the early twenties, he was arrested and taken to the prison in the village of Pilna. There he fell ill and soon died.

Priest Vasily Adamenko was born in 1885 in the village of Poputnaya, not far from Armavir. From a young age he was very religious and possessed eloquence; often preached on the banks of the Kuban, where many believers gathered. Noticing his jealousy, the parish priest sent him to an anti-sectarian missionary course. He was then ordained a priest.

Father Vasily served in Armavir, Odessa, and Yekaterinodar. In 1919, he was expelled from Yekaterinodar to Nizhny Novgorod along with other priests. In Nizhny Novgorod he preached widely and successfully. He served in the Elias Church. Through earnest worship, preaching, and attentive confession, he attracted many young people to the temple, so that, in the end, a religious community was formed.

Being a gifted missionary, he suffered a lot from the fact that the word of God and Orthodox worship are hardly understood by a significant part of the people, that the soul participates in prayer, but the mind remains fruitless, that the very language of the liturgical books is not entirely understandable for modern man. His experiences and reflections found support in the judgments on this issue of some contemporary teachers of the Church, for example St. Theophan the Recluse, who wrote: “There is something extremely necessary. I mean a new simplified and clarified translation of church liturgical books. Our church hymns are all edifying, thoughtful and sublime. They contain all theological science, and all Christian moral teaching, and all consolations, and all intimidations "Whoever listens to them can do without any other educational books."

And about. Vasily took up the task of translating liturgical books into Russian. He compiled and published in Russian the Service Book, a Collection of daily church services, chants of the most important holidays and private prayers of the Orthodox Church and the Trebnik.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, it was difficult to expect the rapid implementation of church and liturgical reforms, and when the renovationist movement appeared, Fr. Vasily saw in him an opportunity to implement reforms and joined the movement.

Hieromonk Theophanes (Vasily Adamenko).

In the temple of Fr. Vasily, everything was subordinated to strict piety, all conversations were prohibited in the altar, all mirrors were removed from the altar and sacristy, which he did not keep not only in the temple, but also in the house. He was very non-covetous and did not take money for demands. His spiritual children strictly fasted on the days established by the church charter, and he often blessed one of the youth to preach in church. In 1924, the wife of Fr. Vasily, unable to bear his ascetic way of life, left, and he became a monk with the name Theophanes.

He saw that not all Renovationist priests were as zealous, that the overwhelming majority of the Renovationist clergy was looking for something else - worldly, not spiritual, and not even religious at all. And about. Vasily tried not to serve the Eucharist with other Renovationist priests, but to concelebrate only at all-night vigils.

K o. Mikhail Nikolaevich Skaballanovich, a well-known expert on church charter, came to Vasily from Kyiv; he was in the service of Fr. Vasily and approved it. “I translated the service into Russian to introduce the believing people, but I didn’t think that this would be realized in practice so soon,” he said.

Often o. Vasily spoke in debates with atheists and always emerged victorious. At the famous debate in Moscow between Lunacharsky and Vvedensky, Fr. Vasily, after which Lunacharsky came up to him, hugged him and said:

Renovationist Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky, having arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, flattered Fr. Vasily, but upon returning to Moscow, he declared: “We’ve had enough of this endekovism and Adamism.” (Priest Alexander Endeka served in the church on Lubyanka Square and belonged to the “ideological” renovationists). Soon Vvedensky sent his bishop to revise and remove Fr. Vasily from the temple. At first Bishop Alexander (Lavrov) came, but after meeting Fr. Vasily and having attended the service, he refused to deal with the priest, for which Vvedensky was transferred to Vologda as punishment. Bishop Alexander was replaced by Metropolitan Hierotheus Pomerantsev (he was tonsured by Archimandrite Sergius of Stragorodsky), who was also tasked with liquidating the community, about which he said upon departure:

I was instructed to disperse you, but I could not do this, since I liked your statutory worship in Russian.

Soon Metropolitan John (Mirtov) arrived, who quickly agreed with the NKVD on a course of action. Father Vasily began to prepare for arrest and sent a letter to Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), in which he repented of renovationism. At the same time, he was preparing his successor.

Priest Vasily Adamenko was arrested on December 9, 1931 after the all-night vigil for the Sign of the Mother of God and deported to the Krasno-Vishera camps.

Priest Vasily Aboimov.

His successor Vasily Aboimov was ordained a deacon and priest by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), and Deacon John Frolov, who had previously served here, was re-ordained by Metropolitan Sergius. In his church, Fr. Vasily Aboimov was not allowed to serve, since the renovationists took the keys to the temple. The flock of the Elijah Church dispersed to city parishes. At this point, Nizhny Novgorod renovationism ceased to exist. Priest Vasily Aboimov and Deacon John Frolov were sent to the village of Pakhotny Usad, where, with the blessing of Metropolitan Sergius, they served in Russian. Soon Fr. Vasily Aboimov was arrested.

At the end of the term, Fr. Vasily Adamenko lived in Vladimir. In 1937, he was arrested and sent to Karaganda along with nineteen Nizhny Novgorod clergy. Died in custody.

Priest Fr. Vasily served in the Transfiguration Church in the village of Vorotynets since 1919. In 1926 or 1927 he was transferred to the village of Katunki; He served diligently and was a moral example for his parishioners.

Serving with him was the priest Fr. Vladimir, a completely different spirit. Having become a widower at an early age, he drank and became dissolute, descending into an increasingly worse state, so that he did not hesitate to betray his brothers. After the transfer of Fr. Vasily, in another parish, the authorities announced a collection of signatures, supposedly in order to preserve the temple. When everyone signed, the case was presented as if signatures had been collected to close the church.

In 1928, the temple was hastily demolished.

According to the denunciation of Fr. Vladimir O. Vasily was soon arrested and died in prison.

Priest Alexander Tsitronov served in the village of Korsakov, Pyanperevoz district.

He was born in 1874, was widowed at an early age and raised his son himself, enduring misfortunes with meekness and humility, placing his trust and consolation in the Lord. In 1929 (or 1930) the authorities expelled him from home, he wandered, lived on alms, but did not leave church services. Not far from the village of Korsakov, in the village of Vorotynets, priest Vladimir served. More than once he approached Fr. Alexandra, seducing him.

Let's give up God, they will give us a good place. Father Alexander answered:

I will not change God for anyone.

In 1937 he was arrested and executed.

Priest Fr. Cosmas served in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese; during the persecution of the Church he was arrested and spent several years in prison; At the end of his term, he served in the village of Mitino, where at that moment there was no priest. In 1937 he was arrested and executed.

Priest Paul of Peru and Deacon Mikhail Lilov. After the closure of the Diveevo Monastery in 1927, only the Kazan Church remained in Diveevo, which served until its closure in 1937.

The rector of the temple was the mitered archpriest Pavel of Peru. The second priest was Fr. Simeon. He was one of the artisans; in the thirties, out of fear of persecution, he resigned his rank. He died in Vyatka during the war.

Mikhail Lilov was the last deacon in the Kazan Church. He had a large family, and it became increasingly difficult to serve, and he had already decided to withdraw from the priesthood; and while he was in the Kazan Church, the First Abbess's mother, Alexander, appeared to him, after which he changed his mind and bitterly mourned his cowardice until his death. On Great Wednesday, during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, he could not read the Gospel about the betrayal of Judas, choking with tears.

When the church was closed in the fall of 1937, Deacon Mikhail was arrested along with the rector, Fr. Paul of Peru. Shortly before his arrest, he was called and asked: “Are you a shepherd or a mercenary?” He replied: “I am a shepherd.”

Both of them died in Arzamas prison on Easter 1938.

The Sarov hieromonk Markellin stood as a tomb at the relics of St. Seraphim for many years. He never tired of serving prayer services and remembering the health of everyone. He said: “Write, write everyone you know, so that everyone can be remembered at the relics of the saint.” Before the monastery was closed, the governor of the Tambov diocese, Archbishop Zinovy, suggested that he take the relics and hide with them in the Caucasus, but he did not listen. He said: “Standing for so long at the relics, I saw so many miracles that I am sure that the monk himself will not give in.”

When the relics were confiscated and taken away from Sarov, he terribly repented of his self-will and almost fell ill.

In the early thirties, Fr. Markellin was arrested and in 1932 was in Alma-Ata at a transit point. The last time he was seen was in a church in Alma-Ata on Holy Saturday, and on Easter night he was sent further along with other prisoners; he died soon after.

Hegumen of the Sarov Hermitage, Rufin, died suddenly in Sarov in 1924. After him, Methodius was hegumen. He was exiled even before the monastery was closed and apparently died in exile.

Hieromonk Isaac, an ascetic of the Sarov Hermitage, was arrested after the closure of Sarov and died in exile.

The ascetic monk Vasily, who was sitting at the Seraphim spring, was killed in 1927 during the closure of the Sarov Hermitage.

Priest John Pustynsky was ordained to the church in the village of Babino, Tashino district, Nizhny Novgorod province, where he served for twenty-five years.

When the persecution began, the authorities, intending to close the temple, demanded payment of an exorbitant tax. The priest had nothing to pay, but the peasants themselves collected everything they needed. Then the authorities arrested him, accusing him of persuading peasants to help pay taxes, and sent him to a camp.

After his release, he began to serve in the village of Usy, because the hieromonk of the Sarov Monastery Damaskin came to serve in his place in Babino.

Soon Fr. John was arrested again. In the camp he fell mortally ill, was released and died immediately afterwards. The imprisonment and trials did not break the confessor; he said: “There is salvation in prison. From east to west you will learn everything there.”

Hieromonk Damascene was a zealous shepherd. One day, an old parishioner died in his parish without confession. Having learned about this, he greatly lamented:

“Now I must pray for him all my life, for I will give an answer for him.”

In 1939, he was summoned to the regional center as if to pay a tax, was arrested there and died in custody.

Monk Theodore (Malyoshkin) was a novice of the Sarov Monastery. Originally from the village of Gavrilovka, Tashino district. After the authorities closed the Sarov Monastery in 1927, he returned to his homeland, walked from village to village, and read the Psalter. The peasants loved him for his meekness and kindness and always received him with joy. When the authorities ordered him to go to the polls, testing the people’s obedience to the new rituals, he did not go. And representatives of the authorities came to his house.

“Blessed is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked and does not walk in the path of sinners,” he said to those who entered. He was arrested and imprisoned, where he died.

Priest Vladimir Bogolyubov was born in the village of Shuvarovo. He was married to the daughter of a priest, Fr. Ioanna from the village of Lendyai, Starshaikovsky district. Serve Fr. Vladimir started in 1922.

Priest Vladimir Bogolyubov.

In 1931, Fr. died. John, and Fr. Vladimir moved to serve in his place in the village of Lendyai in the Church of St. Nicholas. Local authorities hated the Church so much that at the funeral of Fr. John was banned from ringing bells.

At first Fr. Vladimir lived in a church house, but it was taken away. He bought his house, but it was also taken away, and the priest’s family was sheltered by an old woman. However, here too Fr. Vladimir did not have to live long.

In February 1932, the Komsomol activists, headed by Mikhail Perfilyev, gathered in the village council and decided to go for the priest, take him to the cemetery and everyone put a bullet in him.

Teacher Ivan Stepanovich Demin was present at the meeting. The plan to kill the priest horrified him, he came home and told his mother about everything. She told her daughter-in-law Mary:

Run, warn them, they are going to kill the priest.

She immediately ran. The killers got lost, although it was a moonlit night, and Maria managed to warn the priest, who immediately left.

The killers did not find Father Vladimir, but when they saw Maria, they grabbed her and took her to the village council. And they went to her house.

They came and asked the mother:

Where is your daughter?

I don’t know, I got stuck somewhere.

“We killed your daughter,” they say.

“Well, apparently, it’s God’s way,” she answered calmly. (After some time, Maria was released.)

Father Vladimir moved to the small village of Obuvka. But the killers also came there to look for him. Then he went to the neighboring Nizhny Novgorod region, to the village of Mudayuv, where he served until 1937.

In 1937, Fr. Vladimir was arrested and died in custody.

Priest Alexey Salgansky served in the Church of the Kazan Mother of God in the village of Grigorovo, Bolshemurashkinsky district. Alexei's father was arrested in the mid-thirties and died in custody. After his arrest, the atheists began to destroy the temple. They destroyed the bell tower and smashed the bell; The batog tore the icons from the iconostasis and threw them into the river. Finally they announced that they would remove the crosses from the temple. Ivan Ananyev volunteered:

If you pay well, I will find a partner and promise to remove your crosses.

The authorities agreed and gave him money, but when he went to the market, the horse bolted and crashed the cart; he broke his leg, his arm, and broke several ribs, so the event fell apart, and there were no others willing to experience the wrath of God.

Priest Nikolai Satirsky served in the village of Voronin, five kilometers from Grigoriev, was arrested in 1936 (or 1937) and died in custody.

Priest Nikolai Vasilyevich Nikolsky served in the village of Kurlakovo, Bolshemurashkinsky district. Parishioners remembered him with gratitude as a zealous priest; he talked a lot and interestingly about the Church and its history.

When he was arrested in 1941, he was about forty years old. He was apparently executed immediately after his arrest.

Abbess Elizaveta is the second abbess from the founding of the monastery in the village of Medyany, Nizhny Novgorod diocese. The monastery was a labor monastery; nuns and novices were mainly engaged in rural work. Like many monasteries, Medyansky gave charity to those in need.

In 1918, representatives of the Soviet government arrived at the monastery and began to rob it.

The abbess gave her blessing to ring the bell. The peasants, hearing the bell, hurried to the monastery with pitchforks, axes, and stakes. The atheists continued their robbery, and in the ensuing battle, three of them were killed. A few hours later, a punitive detachment entered the village. All the nuns were gathered into one room, the elderly abbess - she was about eighty years old at that time - into another.

Having exposed the body of the old woman, the executioners began to mercilessly flog her. They beat them so hard that the meat was separated from the bones. But the Lord strengthened her, and the executioners did not hear a single groan.

Having beaten her, she was barely alive, they threw the abbess into the basement and kept her there for a long time without food. The Lord did not abandon His servant: when the punishers opened the doors, they found her alive, healed of her wounds.

Soon after this, she died peacefully and was buried in the village of Kamenka, where she lived with other nuns after the closure of the monastery.

Nun Nadezhda (Nadezhda Ivanovna Korotkova) lived in the village of Kamenka. She was arrested in the late twenties. She spent eight or nine years in prison, never tired of preaching Christ, without betraying her monastic vows and rules of piety, for which she had to endure a lot from the guards.

She died in the arms of her fellow prisoner Anastasia, a native of the village of Medyany. Angelic singing accompanied the death of the righteous woman: Anastasia and the guards heard it.

Nun Feofaniya (Rubtsova) from her youth labored in a monastery in the village of Kutuzovka. She lived with schema-nun Seraphima, an elder of high spiritual life.

When godlessness devastated the monastery, she took off her monastic clothes and put on secular clothes, but did not abandon fasting and internal labors. However, her conscience was uneasy. She said to herself: “Everyone is going for their crowns, but will I stay like this? No, I’ll go too.” And she put on her monastic clothes again. She was arrested and died soon after.

Thekla - novice of the Diveyevo Monastery; After it closed, she wandered for a long time until she finally settled in the forest near Cheboksary. In the forties, when she turned seventy, she was arrested. After the verdict, the escort officer told her:

Listen, grandma, carefully. You were given twenty-five years. You won't come out alive.

“Well, God is there too,” she answered calmly.

In 1954, after Stalin's death, she was released and died with her spiritual sisters.

In the village of Kadym, Temnikovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, in 1930(?), the authorities were going to arrest the ninety-year-old nun Svyatoslava and deport her to Kazakhstan, where the nuns of the Nativity Convent had already been exiled. The novice Paraskeva volunteered to go into exile in place of the elderly nun. She took her documents, was arrested, exiled and died in exile.

In 1937, atheists arrested the believing peasants of the village of Novaty, Pilninsky district: nun Paraskeva; church elder Nikifor Timoshkin, sixty-seven years old; church reader Timofey Karasev, seventy-seven years old. When the latter was arrested, they looked for the Bible and Gospel as evidence of the crime. When the police came to search, Timofey ordered his wife to feed them.

Nun Paraskeva died in custody. God's servants Nikifor and Timothy ended up in the Karaganda camps, where they were given one hundred grams of bread and water a day, and three years later both died.

Stepan Vorzhakin was arrested along with them. He knew the Holy Scriptures almost by heart, although he was illiterate, and believed that because of his illiteracy the authorities would not arrest him.

In Novaty, almost all peasants remained individual farmers. And so, wanting to attract a peasant with many children, the collective farm offered him help. He went to ask Stepan for advice, and he replied:

Don’t take it, it’s a sin to take help from them. The peasant was called and asked why he did not want to take the money. He said:

Stepan Vorzhakin does not order. Sin.

Stepan was arrested and died in custody.

Confessor of the village of Puzo. In the village of Puzo, the authorities decided to close the church and proceeded to the headman to take the keys. The elder gave the keys to the believers and they went to the widow Marina Marinina, who never wanted to give them back.

We need a church to pour bread into.

Will not give it back. Take my house, break the stove and fill it up, but I won’t give up the keys.

She was arrested and died in custody. And the temple was taken away from the believers and they began to pour bread there. The bread was rotting, and the peasants were forced to shovel it, but it continued to rot. I had to vacate the temple.

In this village, Orthodox women Olga and her daughter Maria were arrested. Both died in custody as confessors.

Anna Guseva, who willingly called to the service every holiday, was arrested. She greatly grieved that others were coming for their crowns, but she remained. She voluntarily volunteered for torture and went to prison along with other confessors. She died shortly after her arrest.

Wanderer Olga. We know nothing about its origin. It is only known that for the sake of Christ she left her home, husband, children and went to wander; at the end of the thirties she labored in Vetluga.

The words of Christ burned in the heart, promising the highest reward. The pilgrim's feat is difficult: heat and cold, bow to everyone and humble yourself - the wanderer has no shelter on earth. Olga doubted whether she had done well, and she kept praying and asking the Queen of Heaven to reveal to her the will of God, the way of the Lord. Maybe the path she chose was not for spiritual benefit and salvation?

And then one day, when she spent the night in the church gatehouse, the Queen of Heaven appeared to her, as if descending from above. And from then on, Olga calmed down and had no doubt about the correctness of her chosen path.

Bishop Neophytos invited her along with other wanderers to church holidays. The Bishop wanted his house to be filled, and the poor and needy to bring him into the Kingdom of Heaven.

When coming to the bishop, Olga always took off her shoes.

What are you doing, mother? - the ruler stopped her.

I'm glad you invited me.

During the persecutions of the late thirties, she was arrested and died in prison in the city of Varnavin, Nizhny Novgorod region.

In the village of Rezovatovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, in the early thirties, three Markelov brothers - Dimitri, Ioann and Peter - were arrested. These were deeply religious people raised in piety. All three died in custody. At the same time, in this village, two believing brothers, Vasily and John, were arrested. Both died in custody.

Feodor Efimovich Zakolyukin is a peasant in the village of Salgany, Nizhny Novgorod province. When he was in the second or third grade of a parochial school, the students' singing abilities were checked, and he was taken to the choir. Since then he has been in church for all services. He got married, already had seven children, and as soon as the bell rang, he quit any work and hurried to the temple.

When the arrests of the priesthood and parishioners began, Theodore secretly left for Ivanovo. In 1942 he returned to his homeland, was recognized and immediately arrested. His daughter accompanied him. When they walked past the cemetery, he folded his hands on his chest and pointed to the ground, letting them know that he intended to depart to another world.

The court sentenced Theodore to seven years in prison; he was sent to Nizhny Novgorod prison, where he died two months after the verdict.

The biographies of the martyrs and confessors of Nizhny Novgorod were compiled on the basis of eyewitness accounts and documents stored in the archives of the KGB for the Nizhny Novgorod region, with the exception of the biography of Archbishop Joachim (Levitsky) and Fr. John Jodorowsky, based on the texts of Protopresbyter Michael of Poland.

Weekly Cheka, M., 1918, No. 3.

Archive of the KGB for the Nizhny Novgorod region. "The case against V. S. Tulyakov." Arch. No. P-6820. T. 2. l. 8, 49-52, 56, 57, 61, 64, 67, 71,72, 87, 88, 119, 132-134, 140, 141, 150, 155, 158. 160, 161, 175-186, 193, 203-208. "The case against Korobov N.A." Arch. No. P-16985. L. 40, 57, 64, 75, 79, 81, 84, 93, 103, 125, 129, 130.

Tatyana I., Boris Demkin, Raisa Kinyatina, Anna Silaeva, Paraskeva Folomkina, Elizaveta Platonova, Evdokia Platonova, Daria Zaikina, nun Pulcheria (E. Kozlova), nun of the Nizhny Novgorod Holy Cross Monastery Anna, Valentina Zamyshlyaeva, Anna Borodina, Tatyana I., Ekaterina Efimova, Elizaveta Borisova, Maria Sycheva, Elizaveta Simeonova, Elizaveta Meshcheryakova, Nikolai Frolov, Anastasia Validova, Anastasia Smirnova, Maria Golubeva, Anna Novikova, Valentina Dolganova, Taisiya Dubinina, Vera Cheremukhina, Anna Titova, Daria Derzhavina, Anna Kozlova, Elizaveta Oparina , Tatyana Korotkova, Daria I., Matryona Davydova, nun Seraphim (S. Bulgakova).

U o. Mikhail Polsky (New Russian Martyrs. Jordanville. 1957, vol. 2, p. 228) says that Abbot Rufin was tortured in 1927 after torture. According to the testimony of nun Serafima (S. Bulgakova), close to the Sarov and Diveyevo monasteries, he died on his own. The last abbot of the Sarov monastery, Methodius, died in exile.
 

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