HIEROMARTYR PROTOPRIEST JOHN

GEORGIEVICH STEBLIN-KAMENSKY (+ 1930)

By Vladimir Moss

He was born on October 26, 1887 in St. Petersburg. His father, George Georgievich, was the director of the chancellery of the Naval Ministry, and in the last years before the revolution – a senator and privy councillor. He was also president of the Russian Society of Maritime Law. John’s grandfather, George Pavlovich (+1882), was during the last years of his life the governor of Vilnius in the rank of privy councillor. At that time he acquired the estate of Biutsishki in Vilnius uyezd, where John spent his childhood. Here in the estate his mother, Olga Alexandrovna, was buried. She was the daughter of Rear-Admiral Alexander Pavlovich Zhandr, and she died on August 17, 1902.
John received his first education at home. Olga Alexandrovna exerted a huge influence on him and his two sisters, Olga and Elizabeth – they died in the city of Kashin, Tver province. From his childhood the boy felt the warmth of her maternal love and the power of her blessing. But she died early, when John was only fourteen. Looking at his mother on the day of her death, he felt both sharp pain at her loss and that the rest of his life without his mother would witness to the movement in his soul that she developed. It seemed to him then that every bad act of his from now on would be a defilement of her radiant memory and a violation of his obligations in relation to her.
After the death of his mother John finished four years at the gymnasium, and, in accordance with family tradition, chose to serve in the fleet. He entered the Naval cadet corps, finishing in 1908 with the title of guards marin. Then he was appointed to the cruiser “Knight”, and from 1908 to 1909 was in foreign waters. In 1909 (or 1912) he was promoted to the rank of midshipman, transferred to the First Baltic Fleet and served on a minesweeper. From 1909 to 1910 John Georgievich was a company commander on the cruiser “Admiral Makarov”. In 1911 he was awarded with a silver medal by the Italians for helping sufferers during the 1908 earthquake in Sicily and Calabria. In June 1917 he was retired from the fleet for reasons of health.
In the summer of 1918 he worked on a scientific expedition studying the sandbanks of the Neva. In 1919 he was mobilized and until 1921 served as assistant director of the lighthouses of the Baltic fleet and at the same time carried out the duties of a reader in the Holy Trinity church in Petrograd. During this period he firmly decided to become a clergyman and give himself wholly to the service of God. The grace-filled support he felt when he made this decision led him clearly to understand that the Lord was calling him and would not abandon him in his earthly trials.
Having decided to become a priest and entrusted himself completely to the will of God, he went to the grave of his mother in the estate that had belonged to them near Vilnius. Falling down to the earth, he felt peace and calm descend into his soul, and a warmth as if his mother were blessing him again. On returning to Petrograd in 1920, John Georgievich was ordained to the diaconate.
In 1921 Fr. John was arrested by the Cheka for the first time, but soon released. In the summer of 1923 he was ordained to the priesthood for the church of the Holy Trinity on Stremyannaya street. There he gave all his time and energy to his flock. Soon Patriarch Tikhon appointed him rector of this church and raised him to the rank of protopriest.
It was the time of the renovationist schism, and persecutions began against the Tikhonite Church. The life of the parishes was activated, and brotherhoods were organized. Under the leadership of Fr. John the believers began to gather not only in the church, but also in flats, where akathists were read, and the priest explained one or two chapters from the Holy Scriptures.
The OGPU began to interfere more and more into Church life. About forty clergy and laity were arrested in Petrograd. On February 2, 1924 Fr. John was arrested in connection with the case of the Orthodox Brotherhoods. He was accused of uniting Orthodox around him. During interrogation Fr. John said that he served molebens in the flats of some of his parishioners, after which they drank tea and discussed religious matters. That was enough for the authorities. On September 26, 1924 he was sentenced to three years on Solovki. In all thirty-five clergy and laity were sentenced to the camps.
On Solovki Fr. John worked as an accountant, and always walked in priestly clothing and went to church services as long as this was allowed. He wrote letters to his father, sisters and spiritual children. Many of these letters have survived to this day.
Towards the end of his term it became increasingly obvious that the authorities were not going to allow Fr. John to live in Petrograd, and his spiritual children had to reconcile themselves to a prolongation of his absence. And so it turned out: on October 1, 1927 he was released and sent for three years’ administrative exile to Voronezh. Arriving in November, he was given the place of a priest in the Alexeyev church of the former Pokrov Devichi monastery, and after some time was appointed its rector and one of the deans of the Voronezh diocese. He served in the church until its closure on May 2, 1929. Thanks to his efforts and active support, the Voronezh parishioners gathered together frequently and sent food to Archbishop Peter (Zverev) of Voronezh and other prisoners on Solovki.
Fr. John rejected the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius and remained to the end of his life faithful to the “Tikhonite”, True Orthodox Church. He was in communion with Metropolitan Joseph, Archbishop Peter and Bishop Alexis (Buy).
In 1928 persecutions against the Church increased, and everywhere the authorities organized meetings of workers demanding the closure of churches. 275 flats were built on the territory of the Devichi monastery, and unbelieving people were accommodated in them. Thus in addition to the nuns who remained in their cells there lived 872 people. On September 2, 1928 a meeting of the inhabitants of the workers’ village in which the monastery was situated took place. 217 people were present, and 100 people were invited from outside, so unsure were the authorities that they could obtain the closure of the church. One of the speakers immediately pointed out that the followers of Archbishop Peter (Zverev) were increasing their activity. “… ‘Zverevschina’ had again raised its head, its nest was not completely destroyed, it is necessary to destroy it through the GPU.” Others supported the speaker.
“In the 31st cell there lives Pope John, a follower of Zverev. I live in cell number 89 and I see how the wives of the counter-revolutionaries Nechayev and Pushkin (the former founder of the Ternovaya church) visit him. The nuns teach the children of workers to go to the priest for a blessing.”
“It is already clear to all that the music of the church bells is the music of counter-revolution. As long as this counter-revolutionary nest exists here, the workers’ village will not exist.”
“The nuns are hindering the cultural development of the growing generation and are winning the sympathy of the inhabitants not only within the walls of the monastery, but far beyond its walls.”
On September 8, 1928 an article appeared in the Voronezh newspaper, “Commune”, calling for the monastery to be turned into workers’ flats, and the church – into a club. It called for a “decisive battle” with the counter-revolutionary statements of the nuns and their leader, Fr. John.
After the arrest of Bishop Alexis and the death of Protopriest Alexander Palitsyn at the end of 1928, Vladyka Alexis appointed Fr. John as diocesan dean, and in March, 1929 he was the de facto leader of the Voronezh diocese. Articles appeared in the atheist press demanding his arrest. On March 4 the assistant head of the police Podkopayev sent a “top secret” message to the OGPU saying that Fr. John was conducting agitation against Soviet power.
At five o’clock on May 1, 1929, when the atheists came to break the cross on the dome of the church, the abbess of the Devichi monastery died. This coincidence amazed many in the city. Later the authorities accused Fr. John of affirming that her death was the result of persecutions against the Church. The burial of the abbess took place on May 4, and after the burial Fr. John blessed everyone and advised the remaining nuns and parishioners of the monastery to hold out together. On May 6 (19) Fr. John was arrested, and on May 21 he was interrogated. On July 4 Agent Victorov composed an indictment, in which we read: “Having received the leadership of the nuns of the former Devichi monastery, [Fr. John] Kamensky, so as to become a specially venerated ‘pastor’, obtained for himself a portrait of the ‘eldress’ Theoctista Mikhailovna, who is well-known among the hysterical element, and began to occupy himself in exorcizing the demon-possessed, and other similar machinations. Thanks to the rumour spread by the nuns that Kamensky was ‘holy’, he began to acquire great authority among the hysterical element and in general among antisovietically inclined believers. Kamensky began to be visited not only by believers from Voronezh, but many peasants also came to him from the villages of the Central Black Earth region, asking him to heal them of headaches, etc. Kamensky gave advice to everyone who came to him, and particularly how to behave in the present conditions of life and what attitude to take towards Soviet power. Sometime Kamensky personally, but usually through the nuns who were close to him, spread various provocative rumours undermining Soviet power and insinuating anti-Soviet idea, mainly among the inhabitants of the Workers’ Village (the former Devichi monastery). When Metropolitan Sergius published his declaration of loyalty to Soviet power, Kamensky and other exiled priests of the city of Voronezh broke with Sergius and began to recognize the leadership of Metropolitan Joseph of Leningrad. They began to spread rumours about Metropolitan Sergius that he had given in to Soviet power, had become a heretic, red, etc. After the arrest of Bishop Alexis Kamensky became the diocesan dean, and for that reason the whole leadership of the ‘Josephites’ in the Central Black Earth region passed into his hands. Since he is an extreme rightist element among the churchmen, Kamensky personally and through the nuns conducts an active struggle against the churchmen who are in one way or another loyal to Soviet power. Through the nuns Kamensky spreads rumours that Soviet power is going to perish soon, that other states will come and conquer all those loyal to Soviet power. On February 16, 1929 Kamensky personally in a sermon in church said with regard to the proposed introduction of bread ration books: ‘Citizens, there are no reserves of bread, a famine is threatening, whoever can let him store up food, all these are harbingers of coming battles.’ As a result, the nuns and women of the workers’ village began to store up food, queues were formed, and a panic that there really would be a famine, etc., and one of the workers, giving in to this influence, was storing up flour at 2 roubles 80 a pound. The death of the former abbess, coinciding with the moment of the closure of the church of the former Devichi monastery and the removal of the cross was used by Kamensky to stir up religious fanaticism and incitement of believers against Soviet power. Kamensky said that the abbess was a victim of the contemporary persecution against religion, and he (Kamensky) was a defender of the faith against the dark forces of hell (Soviet power). At the burial of the abbess, Kamensky, remaining in the cemetery to bless the believers, said: ‘Look, we are again together, again one flock, soon better times will come and we shall again triumph.’ In the circle of those close to him Kamensky usually turned the conversations from religious topics to political ones. So, for example: in February of this year, while a guest in the house of citizen Eusebius Fomich Kalinina, while discussing the contemporary construction of Soviet power, adduced an example from the Bible: ‘Madmen, you will build, but I will destroy’. When a former teacher (her name has not been established) complained to Kamensky that they were forcing her to teach children unbelief in God, she was advised to drop her job and not bring up children in unbelief.
“One can deduce how authoritative Kamensky was among the believers from notes taken from him during a search in his house: ‘Greatly respected batyushka, I turn to you again with the request that you pray for Alexander, he was at his place and was working, but they fired him and he began to drink… Your prayer will reach God, and I believe that he will again go there and stop drinking vodka.’… In the notes that believers give to Kamensky in church they write: ‘for the health of so-and-so who has gone astray’ (‘gone astray’ means ‘unbelieving’), supposing that Kamensky will be able to turn the unbeliever to God, and make him a believer again.
“Everywhere the nuns spread the idea that Kamensky is a martyr, a sufferer from Soviet power, the persecutor of Christians. Often Kamensky himself has said: ‘Well, what if I go into exile, I can unite believers around me everywhere, they will always feed me, so all their (the authorities’) efforts to do something to me are in vain.’”
Fr. John denied the charges against him and said: “I do not sympathize with actions directed against religion. I think that the teaching of children in schools in an anti-religious direction, etc., is incorrect. I have no doubt that faith in the crucified Christ is invincible, and that the apparent triumph of materialism is a temporary phenomenon. The photograph found during the search of my flat of the old woman known in Voronezh as the wanderer Theoctista Mikhailovna came into my possession by chance from a woman that is known to me only by name (Catherine). I received many notes asking for my prayers. Among the notes there are some that ask for prayers for prisoners and those who have gone astray. By ‘gone astray’ I understood fall away from the faith or nominal believers who are living in an unlawful manner. During the whole of my service in the former Devichi monastery, unfailingly on every feastday and every Sunday, and sometimes also on weekdays, I gave a short instruction of a purely spiritual character without in any way touching on the civil authorities or on the necessity of storing up this or that kind of food. In particular, I gave such an instruction on February 16.
“After the death of the abbess I neither personally nor through anyone else spread rumours through the city. I am still less guilty of having ever calling myself or incited others to call me a true pastor in the exceptional sense of being called to save believers from the dark forces of the hell of Bolshevism, but I do not deny that I consider myself to be one of the faithful pastors of the Church of Christ, who are obliged by word and life and spirit and faith and purity to be a model for believers and to guard them from the darkness of unbelief. And I confess that, according to my faith, not only materialism, but also the very ‘gates of hell’ will not prevail over the Church of Christ. I left the grave of the abbess before its closure, but it is true that I blessed those who came to me. Moreover I comforted them as far as I was able, but I did not say: ‘Don’t grieve, we’ll get what is best for us’…
“To those who came to me and asked about entering a cooperative, collective farms, communes, etc., about taking part in the new structure of agriculture, I always replied in this spirit: that if in this, as far as I know, no renunciation from the faith is required, then it goes without saying that there can be no sin in such a participation…”
From prison Fr. John secretly sent a letter to his flock which said: “If during my service in Voronezh and stay amongst you, you, who have been entrusted to me by the Lord, have not felt that your faithfulness to Him is dearer to me than my own life, then, alas, neither this letter nor any other will reveal this to you. But if I truly love you with the love of Christ, and if I partly take comfort in our sorrow, since it witnesses also to your love for me…, I now want for the last time with tears in my eyes to ask you… If you do not depart from the Cross, then we shall be close to each other during our separation, however long it may last…”
On August 16 he was sentenced to three years in the camps, and was again sent to Solovki.
This time, however, his stay on Solovki was short. On April 23 (February 12 or February 20), 1930 an order came to Solovki for his arrest and his despatch to the Voronezh OGPU together with Fr. Nicholas Dulov. On May 5 (or March 5) Fr. John was imprisoned in Voronezh.
Case № P-24705, “The Church-Monarchist Organization, ‘The Buyevtsy’ (TOC) in the Central Black Earth region (February to July, 1930) was brought by the OGPU for the Central Black Earth region, and consisted of seven volumes. Between February and March 134 people were arrested, and 492 people were indicted. The accused were held in Voronezh prison.
The first interrogation took place on May 15. Priest Nicholas Dulov had been broken by cruel tortures, and agreed to testify against the accused. The investigator therefore had to prove nothing more than his close acquaintance with Fr. John, who said: “During my time in freedom in Voronezh, Priest Dulov came twice to Voronezh, the first time at the feast of the Trinity (at the beginning of June), 1928, and the second time in November in the same year. We saw each other twice in the church. The first time he served in the cathedral with the clergy of the former Devichi monastery, while the second time he was only present at the service. After the first service I invited him to have lunch with me. No conferences of priests with the participation of Dulov were arranged. Dulov did not bring me any brochures; I don’t know the brochure, “What the Orthodox Christian Must Know”. In general, I was interested only in the opinions of authoritative hierarchs, and not in anonymous brochures.”
On May 20 Fr. John was accused of “spreading church-monarchist leaflets and brochures and spreading various kinds of provocative anti-Soviet rumours, and of conducting agitation against all the actions of Soviet power in the sphere of collectivization, the industrialization of the USSR, his ultimate aim being to prepare the believing masses to speak out against Soviet power, overthrow it and restore the monarchy. As a result there were massive outbursts of the population against Soviet power and its actions in many regions of the Central Black Earth region.”
Later during the case Fr. John was called one of the initiators of the anti-sergianist movement of the True Orthodox Christians in Voronezh, which at that time formulated public opinion in the city. In the protocol of the interrogation of Fr. Sergius Butuzov it was said: “… They created that firm mood of the masses which drew in its wake the whole of the Voronezh clergy.”
According to the case records, in order to achieve the practical leadership of the “Buyevite” movement of the True Orthodox Christians in Voronezh, there was created instead of the legal deanery council a secret college for administering the Voronezh diocesan centre of the TOC composed of five people. Its president was Protopriest John Steblin-Kamensky, and its members: the priests Fr. Sergius Gortinsky, Fr. Eugene Marchevsky, Fr. John Zhityaev and Archimandrite Ignatius (Biriukov) – the diocesan spiritual father, who headed the Josephite monastics of the TOC in the Central Black Earth region. The college had a wide net of propagandist-messengers in the diocese. The most important of them were Archimandrite Tikhon (Krechkov), Igumen Joannichius (Yatsuk), Hieromonk Melchisedek (Khukhryansky), and the laymen Polyakov, Kartsev and Karelsky.... After the arrest of Fr. John the secret college was led by Fr. Sergius Gortinsky, and the rector of the church of the Alexeyev monastery, Fr. Theodore Yakovlev, was made a member in the capacity of secretary. The college maintained links with Bishop Alexis in camp.
One of the main points of the indictment was the immediate participation of “Buyevite” clergy in massive uprisings of the peasants. The Alexeyev monastery was accused of playing the leading role. In 1929 and at the beginning of 1930 there were supposedly meetings of the “Buyevite” leadership there in order to coordinate their work among the peasantry.
On getting to know the indictment, Fr. John demanded that he be given the opportunity to reply to the accusations. Two days later the investigator gave him that opportunity. He wrote: “I categorically refuse to accept that I am guilty of the accusation I am charged with. I have not belonged to a monarchist church organization… Peasants, members of communities and clergy came to me on various church business. I never had any political or organizational discussions with anybody…”
The investigation came to an end of July 14, 1930. On July 23 the result was sent to the OGPU college. On July 28 the college reviewed the case and sentenced eleven men to death in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11: Protopriest John Steblin-Kamensky, Archimandrite Tikhon (Krechkov), Protopriest Alexander (Arkhangelsky), Priest Sergius Gortinsky, Priest Theodore Yakovlev, Priest George Nikitin, Hieromonks George (Pozharov) and Cosmas (Vyaznikov) and the laymen M.P. Tymchishin, Euthymius Grebenschikov and Peter Vyaznikov. The sentence was carried out on August 2 in Voronezh.

HIEROMARTYR METROPHANES

OF KRASNAYA DOLINA (+ 1930)

By Vladimir Moss

Priest Metrophanes Fyodorovich Buchnev (or Bychkov) was born in 1880 in Voronezh, where, two centuries earlier, there had laboured one of Russia’s most beloved saints, whose name he bore. Upon graduating from seminary, he married the daughter of a Voronezh merchant and was soon ordained to the diaconate. His talent as a musician – he was an accomplished violinist – won him an offer of a well-paid post as a choir director in St. Petersburg. But his heart called him to the priesthood.

The parish to which Fr. Metrophanes was first assigned was neither better nor worse than most. But the young and energetic new priest chafed at the established routine, and zealously undertook a proper “house cleaning”, brushing aside cobwebs, both literal and figurative. His dedication won him the hearts of the parishioners but raised eyebrows among the older clergy. Later Fr. Metrophanes regretted that in his youthful inexperience he had perhaps been tactless and offended his superiors. But their entrenched attitude was stifling. So as not to lose his idealism entirely, Fr. Metrophanes began to visit Elders Joseph and Anatoly of Optina. They blessed him to build a new church where he would be free to till the soil after his own manner.
A large meadow in the middle of a nearby village was chosen as a site for the new church which was to be dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God, "Joy of All Who Sorrow.'' While waiting for official permission to begin work, Fr. Metrophanes would often go there and pray. Many people joined him. ,Such a project naturally met with disapproval among the "routiners." "Lord," prayed Fr. Metrophanes, "is this pleasing to Thee?" Like a New Testament Gideon, he boldly appealed for a sign from above. Turning to the Heavenly Queen, he prayed: "If the building of this church is pleasing to Thee, O Mistress, send rain!" The hot sun was beating down upon the parched earth which sent up clouds of fine dust from beneath the feet of those who made their way together with Fr. Metrophanes to the chosen site. When they arrived they began singing a molieben in honor of the Icon "Unexpected Joy." And suddenly, out of nowhere - a cloud! and such a downpour! The faithful continued their singing. Holding the wet service book, Fr. Metrophanes with trembling turned once again to the Mother of God: "lf the building of the church is pleasing to Thee, stop the rain." They returned under the bright rays of the sun, their clothes dry and their spirits uplifted.
Finally, permission was granted by the local ecclesiastic authorities, and Fr. Metrophanes himself began to dig the foundation. Once he had won over the support of the local people, work progressed rapidly according to a design which he himself had worked out. Unfortunately, circumstances prevented its completion.

More and more people began coming to Fr. Metrophanes for advice - and not only concerning spiritual matters, but also various aspects of daily life. This aroused envy among the other clergy whose parishioners preferred to go to Fr. Metrophanes's church. Unable to tolerate such a disruption in the "normal order," they petitioned the Bishop to reassign Fr. Metrophanes to another district. Not wishing to lose the entire older group of priests, the Bishop asked Fr. Metrophanes to leave Kalach and move clear across the diocese to the small town of Krasnaya Dolina.

It was only many years later that Fr. Metrophanes was able to recall with gratitude the Bishop's directive and to see in it God's All-wise Providence. Through experience he came to realize that at that time he lacked the necessary spiritual maturity to handle the situation there in Kalach. There is a popular saying that every fruit has its season. But then Fr. Metrophanes had quite a different reaction: "Bishop Anastassy took a rusty knife, thrust it into my heart--and left it there." In leaving Kalach he had to abandon that to which he had devoted so much labour, so much love.

Compared to Kalach, Krasnaya Dolina was a poor, insignificant little village. What was worse, in the revolutionary turbulence of 1905 it had gained a reputation for its socialist sympathies. While one could not speak of it as godless - traditions linking the people with the Church were still strong - a feeling of apathy towards religion had become, so to say, the fashion. The welcome extended to the new priest was disinterested at best; among the wealthier or more learned members of the community it was outright scornful.

The church there in Krasnaya Dolina reflected the impoverished spiritual state of the village inhabitants. Small, dark and cold, it was attended only on big feasts and for baptisms, weddings and funerals. Fr. Metrophanes served alone, without choir, without reader. But he did not use the empty church as an excuse and continued, as was his custom, to serve the full cycle of services.

But how difficult it was! How difficult! Without God's help it would have been impossible to endure. Reading the lives of saints, the lives of the ancient desert dwellers and of the righteous ascetics of more recent times, one sees that they all "sowed in tears," that every one of them endured trials and temptations by God's allowance, that they all passed through the furnace in which their spirits were tempered, purified by fire, in order that later they could reap fruits of spiritual joy.

There in Krasnaya Dolina Fr. Metrophanes met with an added burden of financial difficulties. Conscious of the needs of his growing family (he had twelve children), he was many times tempted to ask for a transfer to another parish. But he put his trust in God, ashamed even to think of his priesthood as a means of financial support.

His first years in Krasnaya Dolina were years of grief and intense spiritual warfare. The parish was like a heavy weight pulling him down and Fr. Metrophanes had to fight to keep his spirit alive. Through God's mercy he met an eldress, Metrophania, who helped nourish his soul and strengthen his spiritual powers. The eldress also consoled Fr. Metrophanes's wife, who, as a mother and housekeeper, felt keenly their poverty. Against this she arrayed the two strongest weapons, prayer and fasting, Fr. Metrophanes was able with God's mercy not only to survive, but to turn the tide. The people used to complain about the length of the services, but Fr. Metrophanes stood firm, faithful to his pastoral conscience. Refusing to succumb to discouragement, he continued to call on the people to ascend to the Kingdom on high. And if he began as one crying in the wilderness, his voice was eventually heard.

Three years passed and new people came to Krasnaya Dolina. Untainted by local prejudices, the newcomers were quick to value Fr. Metrophanes and were even able to influence their neighbours. Hearts were softened and the church began to fill up. A noticeable change came over the whole village as people began to respond to the spiritual challenge of Fr. Metrophanes' demands. The neighbouring priests only regarded him with amazement.

Gradually a tight circle of followers gathered around him. Fr. Metrophanes discouraged visitors who came simply to pass the time, but he always welcomed those who came in search of "the one thing needful." A group began to meet regularly for spiritual discussion; Fr. Metrophanes would read from the Bible or from the Holy Fathers and give a commentary. Out of this group a community of sisters developed following a monastic pattern.

In obedience to the Optina elders, Fr, Metrophanes also began at this time to serve weekly molebens before the icon, "Unexpected Joy," and also to perform services of exorcism. Having been so recently infected by the spirit of "enlightenment", many people were convinced that demons were a superstition. It was enough, however, for one of these sceptics to attend a service of exorcism performed by Fr. Metrophanes to be persuaded of the terrifying reality of demons just as it is portrayed in the story of the Gadarenes.

Once having awakened from sleep, the people of Krasnaya Dolina soon realized that theirs was not an ordinary village priest who simply fulfilled the traditional services and ceremonies. The years preceding the Revolution were a time of anxiety. In spite of the long services, the church was filled beyond capacity. People often came from long distances and stayed on until evening. Tables and benches were arranged in the open air, and on a feast day as many as 500 people were fed. Fr. Metrophanes used to say to his helpers, "Freely ye have received, freely give."

For some time after the Revolution the authorities of the new regime were afraid to touch Fr. Metrophanes because of his immense popularity, but this period of reprieve could not last forever. Atheist activism became more militant and Fr. Metrophanes was subjected to repeated interrogations and brief periods of arrest. Throughout the country Satan was sifting people as wheat.

The years of unrest and civil war brought a famine which was acutely felt in the north-western part of the Voronezh province where Krasnaya Dolina was located. Fr. Metrophanes' former parishioners in Kalach persuaded him to return together with his nuns. Once again he served in the church which he had built and continued to direct the intense spiritual activity of his community in spite of the adverse circumstances which were closing in on them all.

It was during this time that the sisters chanced to witness an extraordinary manifestation of the prayer which ever burned in Fr. Metrophanes's heart. It was an early winter's morning, the church was still dark. Fr. Metrophanes was in the altar engrossed in the Proskomedia which always took him several hours. The sisters were on the kliros chanting Matins. From behind the iconostasis came bursts of light. Afraid that something had caught fire, one of the sisters opened a side door into the altar and saw Fr. Metrophanes standing at the Table of Oblation where he was taking out particles for commemoration of the living and the dead. With each name that he pronounced, there shot out of his mouth a flame of such intense brightness as to illumine the entire altar area.

After the worst of the famine was over, Fr. Metrophanes returned to Krasnaya Dolina together with the community of sisters. By this time anti-religious attacks had escalated and it was not long before the community was closed and the sisters dispersed to find shelter with relatives. Spiritual ties, however, remained strong. They often visited Fr. Metrophanes and were obedient as before to his counsel.
Between the beginning of the Revolution and 1924 Fr. Metrophanes was arrested at least a dozen times; sometimes his imprisonment lasted a week or two, but at other times it lasted several months. Finally the chairman of the village soviet told him that he would do better to leave Krasnaya Dolina, warning that if he did not, things might end very badly for him. He had no choice. Earlier Eldress Metrophania had told Fr. Metrophanes that some day he would move to Voronezh and had given money for a monastery. It "so happened" that the house with the best view of the monastery was for sale just at that time - and for precisely the sum of money given by the Eldress.
There in Voronezh a number of the sisters rejoined Fr. Metrophanes. Somehow, in the midst of crowded living conditions, they managed to preserve the daily cycle of services. Without the support of a parish their financial situation was precarious, but Fr. Metrophanes possessed strong faith and inspired others to trust the Lord's command: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink..." (Matt. 6:25).

Fr. Metrophanes concentrated on his obedience to serve molebens before the icon "Unexpected Joy." Having no parish of his own, he held these molebens in the homes of his followers, frequently moving about so as not to attract the attention of the authorities. But this was almost impossible; these services drew as many as a hundred people. In spite of its being often crowded, stuffy and hot, everyone was caught by the uplifting spirit of prayer.

Always neat in appearance, Fr. Metrophanes exhibited a marked strictness, not only with regards to his own fasting and prayer, but also in fulfilling the typicon. He never cut the services, which were long but never dragged. He served simply, unobtrusively, so as not to interfere with the spirit of prayer. Some people were afraid to go to him for confession because he was so demanding, but those who did were struck by his skilfulness in treating the soul's wounds; with his gift of clairvoyance his instructions always hit their mark.

In Voronezh the circle of followers expanded and the study groups drew more and more people. Fr. Metrophanes's extensive library of spiritual books provided a wealth of material which he enriched still further with his profound commentaries. But while encouraging this kind of study, he stressed the importance of carrying the Bible around, not in the pocket but in the heart.
Fr. Metrophanes believed in a strict separation of Church and politics. He tried to isolate his community as much as possible from the grey, deadening Soviet reality and provided it with a world of its own, given over to seeking the Kingdom of God. But the renovationist schism and the difficulties of the Church situation weighed heavily upon Fr. Metrophanes and together with his frequent arrests, they broke his health. In 1928 he developed heart trouble from which he never really recovered. Churches were being closed one after another. Although Fr. Metrophanes had no parish, the authorities couldn’t tolerate his widespread influence; his very existence was an obstacle to them when their aim was to scatter the sheep.
In October, 1929 he was arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary agitation. The trial was open, but the evidence was so poorly fabricated by the authorities that they failed in their attempt to discredit Fr. Metrophanes in front of the people. Nevertheless, they sentenced him to five years’ exile in Eastern Siberia. His frail health could not endure the journey, and he died on March 22 (or in April), 1930. A cross erected over his grave on the banks of the Angara began to attract the faithful. For that reason it was removed...
Holy Hieroconfessor Metrophanes, pray to God for us!

HOLY HIEROMARTYRS DANIEL, ONESIMUS AND ARSENIUS
and those with them (+ 1937)

By Vladimir Moss

Nun Maria, in the world Marina Stanislavovna Burdanova, was born in 1878 in Kiev into a noble family that was half Russian and half Polish. In her first marriage she was married to the pianist and composer Vladimir Ivanovich Pol. Marina Stanislavovna, a very beautiful woman, was a singer. Two children were born to her: a son Oleg (born May 31, 1900) and two daughters, one of whom was called Tamara (or Tatyana). At the beginning of the 1900s her marriage collapsed. She was married for the second time to the artist Burdanov and bore him three daughters. At that time Marina Stanislavovna and her husband were Tolstoyans. The family were infected with theosophist and Hindu teachings, and were strict vegetarians. Marina Stanislavovna taught music and singing. In 1914 the family was evacuated from Kiev to Moscow, where Marina Stanislavovna became a close friend of the wife of A.M. Gorky and moved in the highest cultural and public circles.

Oleg, the future Hieromonk Onesimus, was a remarkable child. His mother said that from his very birth Oleg was distinguished by the exceptional expression of his eyes. She admitted that she feared to look into them. Oleg did not have an easy childhood: his stepfather was jealous of his wife because her son was not his. So in 1914, when hs mother moved to Moscow with her second husband, he went to live with his father, who emigrated already before 1917 to Paris, where he died in the Second World War. After the revolution, feeling himself to be a burden in his father’s family, Oleg left the house and became a manual labourer in the Tolstoyan colony of Yasnaya Polyana. In 1918 he was called up into the army. But, being a Tolstoyan by conviction, he refused. He was arrested and threatened with shooting. At the trial Oleg was defended by a friend of Lev Tolstoy, Gorbunov-Posadov, who said that Oleg’s refusal to serve in the army was not counter-revolution, but human convictions, which did not allow him to take a weapon into his hands to kill people. At the trial he was asked what socially useful work he would do if they released him. Oleg said that he would agree to do any work, but preferred to be a teacher.

At that time the Pushkin experimental colony-school was being organized near Moscow, and Oleg became a teacher of mathematics there in 1921 while his mother taught music and singing. They remained there until 1924. While working in the school, Oleg abandoned Tolstoyism and began to study various systems of philosophy. Then he turned to the Russian religious thought of the beginning of the century. This brought him into contact with the Holy Fathers of the Church. He amazed all who knew him by his singleness of purpose. The well-known philosopher M.O. Gershenzon, who knew his family well, once said that he saw in the development of Oleg the development of a genius. Oleg was indeed very gifted. He had absolute pitch, but refused the temptation of becoming a musician. He was also a good painter, but rejected that path, too. He constantly said that he would not live long and had to hurry, so as to be able to tell people something clear about salvation from evil. He was planning a book called “The Island of Certainty”.

Oleg’s first spiritual father was the priest Fr. Roman Medved, who served in the church of St. Alexis. A brotherhood quickly grew up around this priest, a kind of “monastery in the world”. Oleg’s “meditations” were now replaced by prayer. Valeria Prishvina (later Liorko), the daughter of a tsarist officer shot in 1918 who belonged to Fr. Roman’s brotherhood, recalls Oleg’s first visit to the church of St. Alexis: “It was the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 13/26, 1923. I dropped in at home after work, so as to go immediately on to the all-night vigil. ‘You’ve come at the right time,’ said mama. ‘A wonderful young man has come to us. He’s searching, in his words, for “elders”, in order to learn about the true Church… And I said to him, “God… look for the girl Valeria, she knows who you need.” I said that it would easiest to find you in the church. He’s going there today for the all-night vigil. You go up to him yourself... – we made an agreement with him about that.’ ‘But how will I recognize him?’ ‘It’s impossible not to recognize him. He is very tall, with wavy chestnut-coloured hair in a hat, with a tortured face – whether from tiredness or hunger – a beautiful face! Very gloomy, but then a childlike trustfulness breaks through in conversation. He has wonderful eyes – my heart sank when I saw them… just like on the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God.’ ‘Like in the Child?’ ‘No, like in the Mother of God… They call him Oleg Pol.’”

Oleg and Valeria were of the same age. Oleg read to her excerpts from his book, “The Island of Certainty”. A spiritual friendship grew up between them. These relations could have grown into love, but something stopped them – Oleg had a calling to the monastic life. Moreover, he had progressive tuberculosis of the liver which was becoming acute at that moment. The doctors counselled him to move to a different climate, go to the south. But what finally made his mind up was his reading, together with Valeria, V.P. Sventitsky’s book, “Citizens of Heaven”, on the Caucasian desert-dwellers who lived after the example of the ancient ascetics in the inaccessible mountains. Oleg and Valeria had the joint thought of living the ascetic life together in a “community” in the mountains. They supposed that their mothers and some others who thought like them would join them.

Valeria recalls: “We strove for the ascetic life, but by no means the solitary life. We rejoiced in the words of the Psalm of King David: ‘What is so good or so beautiful as for brethren to dwell together in unity.’ We also summoned to ourselves as our ally the book of S. Bulgakov, ‘Two Cities’, in which it was written: ‘In the apostolic and post-apostolic ages there appeared ascetics who highly valued virginity. Moreover, there was born the interesting, albeit quickly degenerating, institution of the living together of ascetics of both sexes.’ Fr. Roman Medved knew about our plans.”

Oleg decided to seek out desert-dwelling monks in Abkhazia. Armed with a recommendatory letter to some Tolstoyans living in Gelendzhik in Krasnodar region, he set off for the Caucasus. Arriving there in the spring of 1924, he settled with an artist couple, the Bironovs, and took casual jobs as a manual labourer. According to rumours, the nearest settlement of desert-dwellers was in the region of Krasnaya Polyana, and Oleg set off to look for them there. Several kilometres from the small settlement of Achish-Kho, he found the cell of Hieroschemamonk Daniel.

Fr. Daniel, in the world Demetrius Vasilyevich Bondarenko, was born in 1879 in the village of Volynki, Chernigov province into a peasant family, and had an elementary education. In his youth he worked in a sweets factory before going to the monastery of Novy Afon. He was tonsured with the name Demyan, but later took the schema with the name Daniel. Then he went into the mountains to become a hermit. He changed his place of residence many times, and built more than twenty cells with his own hands. In 1924 he settled alone in the skete of St. Nicholas near Zmeika, several kilometres from Achish-Kho in the region of Krasnaya Polyana. He used to descend twice a year to the nearest settlement in order to exchange wooden spoons cut out of boxwood for salt. He knew the mountains very well, and how to avoid falling into the abyss. He had a kitchen garden.

Seeing Oleg’s spiritual condition, Fr. Daniel let him live with him as a novice. Between the seasoned ascetic and the philosopher-novice there developed a close relationship full of respect and love for each other. During the free time available to him after prayer, Oleg devoted himself to writing.

During the winter of 1925 Oleg went to Moscow for necessary books and in order to read his writings to his friends and listen to their comments. He gave Valeria his completed work, “The Island of Certainty”, and the two friends studied liturgics and iconography together. They continued to dream of leading an ascetic life with their mothers and friends, including A.V. Lebedev, a member of Fr. Roman’s brotherhood, who was hopelessly in love with Valeria.

That winter Oleg rarely met Valeria except in society. Valeria Dmitrievna still hoped for the simple human happiness of love, but Oleg was drawn towards the monastic life. Oleg wrote to her on February 2/15, 1926: “You said: ‘The most daring work that I ever thought up is our love… I believe that here, on earth, paradise is possible – the paradise of the flesh.’ I want to tell you that I understand you, your thought, and I sympathize with it, but I do not know whether it is necessary to long for its realization on earth, because that would be too great a miracle. Perhaps it is enough to pray to the Lord that your thought be realized to the end (for a ‘community’, as I conceive of that now, is not yet its realization to the end) in the life of the age to come, for which it is necessary, first of all, to acquire the treasure in the heavens… The image of perfect love which you see belongs to the heavenly self-flowering blooms. Knowing human nature in general, this does not prevent me from relating to it with caution.” And in a letter to Fr. Roman Oleg wrote: “There is another love, an example of which we can see in the life of St. John Chrysostom. Florensky notes that his relationship with the holy Deaconess Olympiada is a relationship of exceptional love. St. Demetrius of Rostov himself points to this love in his life of St. Olympiada, calling it spiritual love and seeking parallels in the Apostle Paul and Persida. Whether this parallel is correct, I do not know. But what is important is that the lives of St. John and St. Olympiada are written separately. Their memorial is on different days and their names are not linked. They were a kind of support to each other, but both were equal in Christ (according to the expression of K. [Valeria (Kaleria) Liorko])… It goes without saying that I do not dare to affirm that our love is of this order, but, at any rate, it is directed in that direction. This is monastic love. The first who demonstrated this love was the All-Holy Virgin Mary… Now I shall speak about A.V. [Lebedev]. In relation to him this process of ‘entering into my heart’ was fully completed only in the past summer. The most remarkable thing about our relationship is that instead of jealousy, which is what there should be, if love is even a little mixed with earthly shades, the love between us increases all the time. Moreover, it is of a heavenly hue, as if passing over from Kaleria… If it were not for him, we would not know that our love can extend to the whole world, that it must not be limited by two people… Kaleria has helped me simply by her existence, but not only in this way – I have borrowed many thoughts from her, while treating them as my own. In general, we have one mind. And if the direction of A.V.’s thoughts does not completely coincide with mine, - he is more inclined to the line of the Russian intuitivists, who consider themselves continuers of Plato and Aristotle in philosophy, while I consider it more worthwhile to continue Descartes and Leibniz, - nevertheless, both directions are reflected in the soul of Kaleria and go along one line – the Orthodox spirit.”

Oleg’s work, “The Island of Certainty” was published on papyrus paper in several copies, and was kept by various people. But they were all at various times repressed, and the manuscript disappeared. We know only that one copy of the book was somehow sent to Oleg’s father in Paris in the 1930s, and a small extract from it was published in a Parish journal under the name “Wanderer”. (In the 1960s a copy was found in Moscow. It represents the first draft variant of the work, and is clearly incomplete in several places. It lacks the most vivid, third part of the work.)

In the spring of 1926 Valeria, Oleg and A.V. Lebedev again went to Fr. Daniel in Krasnaya Polyana. At Pentecost they visited the skete of the desert-dweller Fr. Sabbatius at Medoveyevka Polyana, about thirty versts away, and went to the valley of the river Pskhu near Sochi, where over a hundred monks (there was also a separate community of nuns) seeking greater quiet than was available in Novy Afon, were settled. Soon Valeria left, and then Lebedev.

In the autumn of 1926 Fr. Daniel and Oleg were visited by Oleg’s former pupil at the Pushkin colony, Boris Grigoryevich Kordi, the future Archimandrite Arsenius. He was born on June 21, 1907 in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Vladimir province into a middle-class family of Russianized Greeks, and received a secondary education. He lost his mother when he was young and lived with his father, an official on the railways, and his sisters in the city of Rostov, Yaroslavl province. In 1921, after the death of his father, he went to a special school with an agricultural bent in Pushkino, near Moscow. It was there that he first met Oleg, who was teaching mathematics there at the time. If in the beginning Boris wavered between theosophy, of which there were many followers among the teachers in the school, under the influence of Oleg his world-view became profoundly Orthodox. In 1924 the school closed, and Boris entered the Abramtsevo School of art, where he learned how to sculpt in wood. But he did not forget Oleg, but went to visit him in Krasnaya Polyana, and struggled there with him and Fr. Daniel from 1926 to 1929. He collected documents on the repression of clergy for Fr. Daniel’s book, “Close to Sunset” (samizdat).

Fr. Daniel said: “Just as the first monks were never in monasteries, and almost all were holy, so will it be with the last monks.”

The three men began to live together. They built new cells in the glen. The idea of an ascetic life with Valeria was abandoned. In the winter of 1926/27 Oleg wrote to Valeria advising her to enter a monastery, and inviting her to come to him for six months. However, Valeria had only a three-week vacation, her mother had been ill throughout the winter, and she was able to look after her and earn a living only with great difficulty.

On August 28 / September 10, 1927 Oleg was tonsured into monasticism with the name Onesimus by Hieromonk Metrophanes in the presence of Fr. Daniel, Fr. Arsenius, Sergius Skorokhodov and Monk Nicholas. The rite took place in a poor village cemetery church in the Sochi region.

In 1929 Fr. Onesimus was ordained to the priesthood. After his ordination, he did not abandon his literary work. In addition to “The Island of Certainty”, he wrote “Economics”, “The Economy of Man” and “On the Liturgy”.

The secret “closed” skete of St. Nicholas in which he lived with Fathers Daniel and Arsenius was in the jurisdiction of Bishop Barlaam (Lazarenko) of Maikop, the future Catacomb hieromartyr. Fr. Onesimus fulfilled the functions of dean of all the closed communities of the Maikop and Black Sea districts; they were hidden in remote, inaccessible places. The members of these communities, led by Bishop Barlaam, did not recognize either the renovationists or the sergianists. Since they rejected the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, they were in an illegal situation and therefore under constant threat of arrest. As Bishop Barlaam wrote to Archbishop Demetrius (Lyubimov) of Gdov: “Intensive pressure has begun on the monastics from those outside. In opposition to this, we are increasing the numbers of [monastics] in the conviction that monasticism must not be destroyed together with the monasteries. We live in secret from ‘the outsiders’; not many even of our people know where we are. We have a large underground church with a full complement of church servers. We are able to ordain priests and administer communities. In Maikop we have a diocesan administrative organ – a permanent conference of presbyters. There are two deaneries.”

In January, 1929, with the blessing of Fr. Daniel, Fr. Onesimus visited Archbishop Demetrius in Leningrad and was sent by him to Bishop Barlaam at Peus on the upper reaches of the river Sochinka. On the way he stopped in Moscow and stayed for a few days in the family of Natalia Arkadyevna and Valeria Dmitrievna Liorko. Later Valeria married M.M. Prishvin.

On October 8, 1929 armed men burst into the St. Nicholas skete at Krasnaya Polyana, arrested the three monks and burned their cells. At his arrest the following manuscripts were found in the possession of Fr. Onesimus: (i) “On the apostasy of Metropolitan Sergius”; (ii) “On Metropolitan Sergius of Nizhni-Novgorod and his Synod”; (iii) “Reply to Objectors” and “There are Few of You”; (iv) “Letter from Kiev to all the Faithful Children of the Holy Orthodox Russian Church”, Kiev, November, 1927; (v) “Beloved in the Lord, my spiritual children – priests and deacons ordained through my humility for the service of the Orthodox Church” (without signature); (vi) “Epistle to the Orthodox Clergy and Laity of Voronezh Diocese” by Bishop Alexis (Buj), ruler of the Voronezh diocese; (vii) “Declaration of Bishop Paul [of Starobela] to Metropolitan Sergius”, April 14/27, 1928; (viii) “The Essence of the Apostasy of Metropolitan Sergius”; (ix) “On the Church” by Bishop Barlaam of Maikop, September 12, 1927, Maikop.

On February 27, 1930 Fathers Daniel and Onesimus were convicted by the OGPU of being participants “in a counter-revolutionary monastic organization”, of “having warehouses of arms”, of “counter-revolutionary activity under the guise of the heremitic life” and of “anti-Soviet agitation directed at the overthrow of Soviet power”. Both Fr. Daniel and Fr. Onesimus were accused of being “the leader of a skete of the Black Sea branch of the counter-revolutionary monarchist church organization, the True Orthodox Church”. In accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11 they were sentenced to be shot in the group case, “The Case of O. Pol, M. Oleynikov, Ya. Smirnov and others, Abkhazia, 1929”. During his trial Fr. Onesimus openly expressed his convictions. Among his writings taken away from him at his arrest we read: “Communism parts company not only with Orthodoxy, but with every religion, and in such circumstances to talk about their union means wishing to unite the immiscible.” The investigators noted that Fr. Onesimus’ manuscript, “The Economy of Man” was “a conglomerate of bourgeois theories [that] places the laws of economic development in dependence on ‘the higher spiritual essence that rules the world [God]’. It contradicts the Marxist theory of dialectical materialism. The author takes the position of denial of class warfare in society, and in general denies the existence of classes.” It was suggested to Fr. Onesimus that if he renounced his world view and agreed to work for the security organs, he would preserve his life. He categorically refused.

Fr. Arsenius was accused of being “a participant in the Black Sea branch of the counter-revolutionary monarchist church organization, the True Orthodox Church”. However, because of his youth he was not sentenced to be shot. On February 27, 1930 he was sentenced to five (eight) years in one of the Siberian camps.

The arrested were sent to Novorossiisk prison, where many monks arrested in the mountains, in Pskhu and other places, were brought. They were put on barges in the sea in conditions of terrible suffocation. The monks sang prayers. Fr. Daniel was soon shot. Fr. Onesimus was taken to the prison in Rostov-on-Don, where he was shot, it would seem, in June, 1930.

Constantine Sergeyevich Rodionov, who visited Fr. Daniel and Fr. Onesimus in about 1928, gives further details about the last days of the martyr-monks: "Fr. Daniel's cell was consecrated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. I had a wonderful icon of the Dormition, a gift to my great-grandfather, Alexis Ivanovich Trubetskoy, from Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. I gave this icon to Fr. Daniel, since he had no such icon in his cell…

"Before their arrests Oleg Pol [Fr. Onesimus] managed to collect the icons which were in his cell, sew them into a sack and send them from Chugush in a parcel to the monastery at New Athos. In the monastery they first received a telegram-notification: "Roses being sent," and then came the icons. Soon Oleg Pol and Fr. Daniel and Boris Gordi were arrested on Chugush and sent to Novorossiisk. Fr. Daniel's cell was burned. My icon of the Dormition was also consumed in the flames… Oleg Pol and Fr. Daniel, being monks, had long hair, which those who arrested them demanded that they cut. Oleg said:

'Take my head as well.'

"Oleg Pol and Boris Gordi were united in one thing. They were both accused of having created the counter-revolutionary society of the Archangel Michael.

"Valerie Demetrievna Liorko was at that time in Moscow. When she heard about the arrest, and that Oleg, Fr. Daniel and Borya were sitting in Novorossiisk prison, she asked me to find about the fate of Oleg from the husband of her sister, who was a chekist and lived in Novorossiisk. At that time I had to go through Novorossiisk on my way to Armavir, where I was going to give evidence on behalf of my arrested friend Stepan Petrovich Gamayunov. He was condemned as a kulak since he had a big apiary, and I had to witness that he was a good worker and member of a cooperative. All this took place in spring at Pascha,.. 1930. On arriving in Novorossiisk, I went straight to Alexis Vasilyevich Lebedev, the husband of the sister of Valerie Demetrievna. On entering, I saw another chekist through the open door. That was why I did not say anything substantial during our meeting and only chatted about trivialities. But I handed Lebedev a letter in which Valerie Demetrievna asked to know something about Oleg. I went to Armavir and in a few days again came to them, but this time to their house. They lived in Sadovaya street. Valerie Demetrievna's sister was alone. She said that she had asked her husband to find out about Oleg. Her husband had asked them. They had said nothing.

'Understand it as you like,' she concluded.

"After Armavir I went to Valerie Demetrievna, who was living there at that time… and told her everything. The silence of the chekists was eloquent. We both understood that Oleg and Fr. Daniel had been shot. Boris Gordi [Fr. Arsenius], who was a deacon, had been sent into exile..."

After the death of her son, Marina Stanislavovna lived for a while near Zvenigorod in the village of Dunino at the invitation of Valeria Liorko. She converted to Orthodoxy and in 1930 joined the choir of the church of St. Nicholas the Big Cross, while continuing to work as a teacher. In 1932 the church was closed, and Marina Stanislavovna moved to the last True Orthodox church in Moscow, that of the Serbian podvorye. On April 14, 1932 she was arrested, and on May 16 was convicted of being “a member of the church-monarchist counter-revolutionary organization ‘The True Orthodox Church’”. In accordance with article 58-11, she was exiled for three years to Kazakhstan. This was part of “the case of Ananin and others, Moscow, 1932”.

In 1935 Marina Stanislavovna was tonsured secretly into monasticism with the name Maria. She lived in Alma-Ata, and at the end of her sentence decided to stay there, working as a teacher in a music school. She was in canonical communion with Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) with whom her son had also been linked.

From 1935 to 1937 Fr. Arsenius was in exile in Aktybinsk and then in Alma-Ata, where he met Mother Maria and Metropolitan Joseph, who raised him to the rank of archimandrite. Mother Maria adopted her martyred son’s friend, and together they organized a secret church in her house in Alma-Ata. On October 26, 1937 they were both arrested together with other exiled clergy and laity and accused of participation in “an anti-Soviet organization of churchmen”. On November 16, Mother Maria was convicted by the UNKVD of “participation in a counter-revolutionary church organization linked with Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) under the direction of Arsenius (Kordi)”. The sentence was imprisonment in Alma-Ata, where Nun Maria died during a convoy of prisoners from one place to another. The place and date of her death are unknown. However, Fr. Arsenius was shot in Alma-Ata – according to one source, on November 16.

NEW MARTYR STEPAN OF KONSTANTINOVKA (+ 1945)

By Vladimir Moss

Stepan Pimenovich Nalivaiko was born in 1898 in Konstantinovka, Melitopol uyezd, Kherson province. His pious mother had a great influence on him, and through her efforts he obtained a good church education, knew the Holy Scriptures well and loved to read spiritual books. When Stepan was nine years old, he was sent to a church-parish school where he studied for three years, after which he went to a school attached to the Gregory-Bizyukovsky monastery in Tauris province. At that time the rector of the monastery was the future Archbishop Demetrius (Abashidze), and the monastery was glorified by many monks and missionaries. Here Stepan was deeply imbued by the beauty and spiritual depth of the Orthodox services. When he was fourteen he returned home and began to help his parents in their work in the fields. But his mind was elsewhere, and in 1914, when he was sixteen, he went to the city of Genichesk, settled in a monastery podvorye, was accepted as a changer in the monastery choir and he began to study the monastic typicon in the monastery of the Korsun icon of the Mother of God. Then he returned home again, helped his father in the fields and served in church as a reader.

In 1917 Stepan was called up into the army. After some training he was sent to the Romanian front, where he was captured by the Germans and was in the “Lamsdorf” camp until January, 1918. By this time the Ukraine had been occupied by the Germans, and Euphrosyne Romanovna petitioned the occupation authorities for the release of her son. In the autumn of 1918 permission was given, but at this point a revolution took place in Germany and Stepan was not returned to his homeland. So he had to run away from the camp. Day and night he walked, through Germany, Austria, Hungary and then came to the city of Aleshki in Russia, where he received documents witnessing that he was a soldier returning home from captivity. Stepan arrived home four days before Christmas. He immediately began to serve in the church as a reader.

By this time Stepan’s father had become old, his mother was sick and Stepan decided to marry. He married an orphan from the village of Kharitina. A year later a daughter was born to them. Before Stepan’s eyes there rose the ideal of Christian asceticism, and in particular the feat of St. Alexis the Man of God, and in April, 1923 he left his wife, daughter and work in the fields and set off for Moscow.

Stepan was probably influenced in his actions by his mother, Euphrosyne Romanovna Nalivaiko, a pious peasant woman living in Konstantinovka, After the establishment of Soviet power, when the persecutions against the Church began, she began to go round the villages preaching. The authorities warned her: “Babka, stop preaching, otherwise we’ll put you in prison.” She did not obey. In the winter of 1927 they came to arrest her. She put on a sheepskin jacket, and suggested to the man who had come to arrest her that he take the second jacket. “Why are you giving it to me?” he asked. “But you will have to bring me back,” she said. “Babka, you know too much,” he replied haughtily. After the interrogation, they let Euphrosyne Romanovna go, and the same man had to bring her back. In 1929 she died in her own house, and was buried in her native village.

Stepan’s journey to Moscow took forty days. On arrivial, he confessed in the Danilov and Donskoy monasteries, and prayed God to show him what to do so as to appear before the rulers of Russia and tell them the truth of God. At that time Archdeacon Constantine Rozov died; his burial took place in the Vagankovskoye cemetery. When the people had gathered, and the coffin with the body had been taken into the church, the priest came out and said that the burial would take place on the following day. The people had not yet dispersed when Stepan went up, pronounced a penetrating sermon on the deceased, and then added: “The times are difficult, but these are the times of the deliverance of our people from sin, therefore I beseech you, do not forget God. Baptise your children. Do not live together without Church marriage. And the main thing: live according to your conscience. The time will come when the Orthodox will rise up, and God will overthrow these God-haters.” While he was speaking the police tried to arrest him, but the people stood as a wall and did not let them through. Then a unit of the militia was called up and Stepan was arrested, on June 3, 1923.

When they asked Stepan for his documents, he lifted up his shirt, pointed to his heavy brass cross and said: “Here are my documents. I have nothing more.” At the police department he refused to reply to question and was taken to the GPU. Here they suggested that he fill in a questionnaire. To the question what State he belonged to, he replied: “The New Jerusalem”, and for the benefit of the uninformed investigator explained: “that comes down from heaven”. To the question about his profession he wrote: “Reaper”. On his work: “Witness to the word of God, Preacher”. To the questions where he worked, on what means he lived and whether he owned any property, he wrote: “In accordance with the will of Jesus Christ, on everything that Jesus Christ has given”. To the question on his military rank, he replied: “Warrior of Jesus Christ”. Stepan continued to play the fool during the following interrogations.

During his investigation, Stepan was first detained in the GPU prison, and then in Butyrki prison. In prison his presence was a great comfort for the inmates. He immediately said that although he had been arrested for agitation against Soviet power, now, deprived of freedom, he did not fear to tell the investigator the truth. “Soviet power is founded on sand. Fear not and do not be depressed, the time of deliverance is near.” From the Butyrki prison he sent the investigator the declaration: “Rulers of the Russian land, I beseech you to pay attention to your people, how they are groaning under your yoke; the people looks mournfully at the ruler – and the ruler at the people. Let each of you consider: is it not fear that rules a man? And this fear is the fear of unrighteousness. Is unrighteousness stronger than righteousness? In no way, because unrighteousness rules a man so long as he exists on this earth, but when a man dies, unrighteousness also dies… Righteousness conquers even death, because it has a Kingdom and strength from before all ages and to the ages of ages. Amen. And for that reason I beseech you, rulers of the Russian land, quit trying to conquer your own land… Turn to Christ and get to know life in Him… And for that reason, if it is possible, I beseech you to transfer me to an isolated cell… and allow me some paper and ink…” A month later he was transferred to an isolated cell and provided him with paper and ink. There he continued to write epistles to the authorities, calling on them to turn to God.

Stepan was sent to Solovki, where he fell ill with scurvy and his legs were amputated. On learning of his situation, his mother, Euphrosyne Romanovna, set off to see him. Stepan was brought out to see her on crutches. They were together for several days, which helped him greatly. Three years later, at the end of his term, the investigator summoned Stepan and asked him: “Well, have you changed your convictions?” “No, I have not changed them.” “Then take another three years’ exile.” And Stepan was sent to Kazkhstan.

After three years in the city of Turkestan, another three years were added to his term. In exile he learned various trades. He rented a house and garden and brought his wife and daughter to live there. The daughter had to go to school, but Stepan was against her going to an atheist school. So he undertook her education himself, teaching her the Law of God.

In 1931 Stepan was going through his third term, his mother was dead and his father was living on his own in sickness. Stepan’s wife had to go to Konstantinovka to look after the old man. When Stepan was released, in 1932, the investigator offered that he remain in Kazakhstan, where they had a good opinion of him, and he would not be threatened with another term of imprisonment.

However, Stepan returned to Konstantinovka. The church was closed, but people poured up to him. So he gathered a church community made up of twenty people and went with papers to the authorities in Kherson, whence he immediately returned with a priest – a miracle for those days! A nun living in the village was made reader, and Stepan became the director of the choir – there was no end of people wanting to join it. The authorities began to pester Stepan. He worked as a painter-decorator and an artist. He refused to enter the collective farm, and asked for a passport to let him leave the village. But the authorities did not give him a passport, and began to persecute him. At this time his father died, and his land remained unsown. In 1934 Stepan was condemned to five years in the camps, but after he wrote a complaint, his case was reviewed and he was released before arriving at the camp – another miracle!

In 1935 Stepan was tried again, and was sentenced to three years in the camps and two years’ deprivation of civil rights. He was cast into prison in Kherson. Then, in February, 1937, he was sent under convoy to Vladivostok. On the way he wrote a complaint to Moscow. After a time there came the reply: he was acquitted and his conviction erased, while a criminal case was brought against the judge and procurator!

While Stepan was in prison, his wife and daughter moved to Simferopol, and in the summer of 1937 he came to them and set himself up as a painter-decorator. Here he visited the church in the cemetery, chanted in the church choir, and repaired the church.

On October 25, 1940 Stepan was arrested at night. A search revealed a Bible and Gospel. His passport was removed. While he was under investigation, his daughter tried to get permission to get food to him, but she was refused. He was accused of gathering church people together and conducting anti-Soviet agitation among them. He was also accused of things for which he had already served terms. Stepan rejected these accusations. On April 7, 1941 he was sentenced to five years in the camps. Before setting off for the camp, Stepan had a meeting with his daughter, at which he told her who was guilty of his arrest, that all that he was accused of was a fiction and that he was being condemned for that which for which he had been convicted earlier.

He was sent to Norilsk in the far north. During the war there was no communication with him. Only at the beginning of 1945 did they receive a letter: “Three months remain to the end of my term. If God wills, we will live together again.” His relatives sent him a letter, money and a package, but there was no reply. After a time his daughter, Raisa Stepanovna, wrote to the Gulag administration, from where she received the reply that “Stepan Pimenovich Nalivaiko died on February 12, 1945 from hunger”.

HIEROMARTYR BASIL, BISHOP OF PRILUKY (+ 1930)
and those with him

By Vladimir Moss

The Good Shepherd

Bishop Basil, in the world Basil Ivanovich Zelentsov, was born in March, 1870 in the village of Zimarovo, Ranenburg uyezd, Ryazan province, the son of a protopriest. He graduated from the faculty of law of St. Petersburg University and from St. Petersburg Theological Academy, and was a teacher of Russian language in a theological school. He was also a teacher in the Yekaterinoslav theological seminary and a diocesan missionary for Yekaterinoslav diocese.

He was an outspoken opponent of the name-worshipping heresy. Thus, commenting on decree № 2670 of the Holy Synod dated March 10, 1916, he wrote: “In this decree of the Most Holy Synod, we find a confirmation of the basic rule that the name-worshippers must be received into ecclesiastical communion and admitted to the sacraments of the Church only on the unfailing condition that they reject the false teaching of name-worshipping and witness to their faithfulness to the dogmas and teaching of the Church and to their obedience to Church authority”.

In 1917-18 he was a member of the All-Russian Local Council. When he was 47 or 48 years old, he arrived in Poltava and became great friends with Archbishop Theophanes of Poltava, who appointed him diocesan missionary while still an unmarried layman. In 1919 he was tonsured and ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Theophanes.

At first he was the second priest, and then the rector of the Holy Trinity parish. His intense prayer life, penetrating sermons after every service, and spiritual talks on Sundays and feastdays attracted people from all over Poltava, including heterodox and sectarians, and his fame as a preacher spread far beyond the confines of the city. Although he had no particular rhetorical skills, everyone listened enthralled to his sermons, trying to catch every word and penetrate to its inner meaning. The reason for his unusually great influence was his boundless faith in the Providence of God, his devotion to God and His holy will, a devotion that went so far as forgetting everything earthly.

This was particularly evident during Divine services, when batyushka would be so engrossed in prayer as to notice nobody and nothing. And he used to teach people to pray in such a way as not to notice the time or anybody around them. At the end of the services they would awake as if from a blessed sleep, and would want them to go on and on.

Practically everyone knew both the ecclesiastical chants and the readings of all the Divine services by heart, as well as the akathists to the Saviour, the Mother of God and St. Nicholas. Every Sunday evening, when there were spiritual talks, and at the minor feasts, when there was no choir, the whole people chanted under the direction of a deacon. The young people and children also chanted.

Fr. Basil was never too tired to visit distant parts of the city to help the poor, making no distinctions of nationality or religion. Many poor Baptists, Catholics, Jews, etc., were helped by him. He gave away everything that he had out of burning love for his flock, who in turn gave their last to him. He had a great gift for consoling sorrowing and despondent souls, and many of the erring were involuntarily led to exclaim: "This is a true Christian." Vladyka also supported the four orphaned children of a priest from his own means.

He exhorted the heterodox, teaching them all the truths of the Orthodox faith. He conducted debates with the Baptists and other sectarians, as well as with the atheists, and clearly and precisely exposed the falsehood and cunning of all these teachings. The Christian Youth Society of the Protecting Veil was organized against the Komsomol and attached to the Holy Trinity parish.

Trial and Imprisonment

In 1922 there began the requisitioning of church valuables, which was supposed to be for the benefit of the starving in the Volga region. The starving received nothing and died at home or in other places they had dragged themselves to. Meanwhile, the church property that had been plundered went to the centre for the needs of communism while some was pilfered on the spot.

Fr. Basil spoke up against the robbery of the churches. He appealed to his and other parishioners to give bread to the starving, and asked the authorities to say how much bread was needed: "We'll give you double, but don't touch our churches." As was only to be expected, Fr. Basil's proposal was not accepted. On May 30 he was arrested on a charge of obstructing the requisitioning of church valuables and detained in prison until the trial.

He continued preaching in prison, and gave away everything he received to the other prisoners. At first he was in a common cell, but was then put in solitary confinement, where particularly important prisoners were confined. The children found out which cell he was in, and while pretending to play on the square near the prison, received batyushka's blessing and fatherly smile.

The trial took place in the summer of 1922 in the building of the music school on Pushkinskaya street. Fr. Basil, who was then 51 years old, was accused of resisting the requisitioning of the church valuables and inciting others to do the same. The great hall was full of people, and hundreds stood in the street outside. The public was divided into two camps: the secular and the spiritual, those "for" and those "against". The secular camp shouted a lot of abuse, such as: "They'll finish off the pope good and quick", while the spiritual camp were quiet and sorrowful - many of the women wept.

In the middle of an elevated stage there was a large table covered with books, behind which sat the "judges". On the left behind a separate table sat the "public prosecutor". And on the right, behind another little table, sat the accused, Fr. Basil. He was dressed in a humble ryasa with a cross. On his table were two burning candles, a briefcase with papers and a book - probably the holy Gospel - which Fr. Basil read attentively during the breaks. A few steps away from Fr. Basil behind another table sat his state defense attorney.

Fr. Basil was quite tall, thin, pale, with a long face, and a long, greyish beard and hair. A kind of smile did not leave his face throughout the "trial"; it expressed either suffering or pity. Perhaps he was feeling pity for all these judges, for the crowd, for the whole of this earthly assembly.

The prosecutor in this trial was the son of a refugee priest who had fled from the western regions during the Great War, the communist Benderovsky. At that time he was still comparatively young, and had a higher education in law. This toady went all out to ingratiate himself with the authorities. During the trial such expressions as "black crows" and "diehard counter-revolutionaries" were constantly tripping off his tongue. He swore, he threatened, and he demanded the supreme penalty. Later he was appointed director of the Poltava museum, and still later, it seems, was "removed" and disappeared somewhere in the basements of the GPU.

The state defense attorney was an old Poltava barrister, Mr. Ogolevets, a lawyer revered by all. But his role was pitiful, of course - just for form's sake.

The head of the local GPU, the Latvian Linde, appeared as a witness during the trial. He was a handsome, well-groomed, well-dressed man with a military bearing - they say that he had been an officer in the Tsar's army. He said to the accused: "As a servant of the cult and an enemy of Soviet power, I would shoot you with pleasure, but I admit that I respect you as a man of firmness and conviction..."

On the last day of the trial, August 12, Fr. Basil was given the last word. He crossed himself and said approximately the following: "Many things have been said against me during these days. With much I do not agree and I could refute many of the accusations. I prepared a long speech going through each of the points - here it is," - and he motioned towards his notebook, - "but I've thought things over and I shall say only a little. I have already told you, and tell you again, that I am loyal to Soviet power as such, for, like everything else, it is sent from above... But where it concerns the Faith of Christ, the churches of God and human souls, there I have fought, am fighting and will fight to my last breath with the representatives of this power. It would be shameful and sinful for me, as a warrior of Christ who bears this holy cross on his breast, to defend myself personally while the enemies have taken up arms and declared war on Christ Himself. I understand that you are laying down an ideological challenge for me and I accept it..."

At that moment the whispering and humming in the crowd became louder and louder, and voices were heard saying: "The pope is being an agitator... The pope is giving himself airs. Why fiddle about with him? Give him a bullet..." At the same time people were cursing the judge, many were sobbing, some were having hysterics. The president made some kind of objection, but Fr. Basil interrupted him and said: "Allow me to finish, that is my right" and continued loudly: "So I accept your challenge, and whatever punishment you serve me with, I must bear it firmly and without fear. I am ready even for death, for there is no reward greater than the reward in the heavens."

He added something, but it was not audible - the noise in the hall was getting louder. After the speech, having bowed to the hall, Fr. Basil sat down in his place. The judge left to confer with his colleagues. Fr. Basil buried himself in his book, the candles burned, the sentries stood behind his back with rifles.

It was stuffy in the hall, part of the public left to get some fresh air. But the numbers of people were constantly increasing and everywhere there were debates and quarrels - the atmosphere was red-hot. The judges conferred for some time, but finally they came out and the sentence was read out. Fr. Basil was standing behind his little table, his head slightly lowered, calm and pale. The light of the candles showed that his face had aged somewhat in the last few days. His book was lying opened in front of him, and it seemed that he was not listening to the sentence but was reading this book. That was the impression many had. The reading of the sentence lasted quite a long time.

Finally they came to the words: "On the basis of articles such-and-such, the court has decreed that the priest Zelentsov, Basil Ivanovich, 51 years of age, should be sentenced..." Nothing more was audible, for an amazing hubbub started in the hall: "Cursed murderers", "Damn you", etc. "Batyushka, dear one, Christ save you." "Fr. Basil, bless us." There were loud sobs and hysterics, and many hurled themselves towards the stage stretching out their hands as if for a blessing. They took hold of one person, another was arrested...

At the last word of the sentence, "to execution by shooting", Fr. Basil crossed himself broadly and with the same calm smile turned towards the crowd, blessing them with small crosses in the air and consoling them: "The Lord be with you, calm down, everything is in the will of God, look, I'm calm, go to your homes in peace."...

He was surrounded and taken somewhere. Many chekists and policemen appeared, and on the street the huge crowd was dispersed by the mounted police. Fr. Basil was led out under a strong convoy and taken along the street. Some of the people streamed after him. The prison was quite near, and a few minutes later the iron doors of the prison brought this grim picture to an end.

Fr. Basil was put in the death cell. One of the prisoners in Poltava prison recounted that Fr. Basil prepared for death with joy, with an extraordinary exaltation that amazed those around him, and even the administration. And he was saddened when the sentence was remitted. The defense attorney had put in an appeal. On the same day delegates from the factories and all the citizens of Poltava went to see Lenin in Moscow. Since the Bolsheviks had only just established themselves in the Ukraine, they probably feared an uprising from the Ukrainian workers (whom they treated cruelly in the coming years) and changed the sentence to ten years in prison (according to another source, five years).

Fr. Basil was transferred to a general cell. His admirers did not leave him for one minute. Every day he received many parcels, flowers and books in prison. This gave a writer by the name of Kapelgorodsky the excuse to write in the local paper, Bolshevik Poltavshchiny, a blasphemous "akathist". In order to lessen the people's love for Fr. Basil and somehow humiliate and discredit him, the atheists subjected him to all kinds of mockery in the Poltava press. But this "akathist", though composed of insults and mockery, was prophetic in spite of itself, for it foretold his glorification, as a servant of God and the Church, in the Kingdom of heaven.

The prisoners, and especially the criminals, loved and revered him. They called him "our Fr. Basil", or "our batyushka", and did not allow him to carry out the tasks of cleaning the cell, taking out the slop bucket, etc. Nor did they swear in front of him, but defended him from the coarsenesses of the prison warders and all kinds of rogues. This did not please the authorities, and they transferred him to Kharkov prison on Kholodnaya mountain.

Those were the days when the Bolsheviks liked to arrange anti-religious debate in front of large crowds, usually in a theatre. There was one such debate in Kharkov, and Fr. Basil was brought out of prison in the capacity of an opponent of the main speaker. On that occasion Fr. Basil gave such a powerful speech that the whole of Kharkov was talking about it, and the news reached as far as Poltava.

Bishop of Priluki

In 1925, by the will of God and the ardent prayers of the whole of his flock (who also handed over many valuable gifts to the Cheka), Fr. Basil was amnestied and returned from prison to Poltava. While he had been in prison in Kharkov, Fr. Basil had helped a poor woman who was in prison and who had asked for alms together with her son. She died, and Fr. Basil took the boy, brought him to Poltava and looked after him together with the four orphaned sons of the priest.

Fr. Basil's main activity during this period was his struggle with two kinds of Ukrainian separatists - the so-called "Lypkovsky self-consecrators", who had appeared immediately after the revolution, and the more recent movement started by Bishop Theophil (Buldovsky) of Lubensk, a vicar-bishop of the Poltava eparchy. Fr. Basil tirelessly pointed out not only the anti-canonical nature of both schisms, but also the fact that they gave a powerful weapon into the hands of the Bolsheviks in their struggle against religion. Thanks mainly to his energetic activity, it was in Poltava that the decline of Ukrainian separatism started.

Fr. Basil often challenged the leaders of the separatists to a public debate. The challenge was never taken up. Only in their churches did they vent all their spite against the Orthodox clergy, and especially Fr. Basil.

Once Archbishop Gregory (Lisovsky) was celebrating the Liturgy in Lubensk monastery. The service was accompanied by hooliganism on the part of the separatists, who organized a very loud "service" just outside the church in order to hinder the service inside the church. Fr. Basil's sermon during this service was accompanied by profane shouts and insults.

It was during the episcopate of Archbishop Gregory that Patriarch Tikhon issued an ukaz to all the eparchial bishops, asking them to bring forward the most worthy from among the local clergy for consecration to the episcopate. This honour was first proposed to Protopriest Gabriel Kovalenko. But he considered himself unworthy and refused. Later, in 1937, he was tortured and killed. Then the same offer was made to Fr. Basil.

And so, on August 12, 1925, in accordance with the unanimous wish of the clergy and people, Fr. Basil was consecrated bishop of Priluky, a vicariate of the Poltava diocese, in Holy Trinity church by Archbishop Gregory and Bishop Damascene (Tsedrik), the future hieromartyr, who happened to be detained on his journey and came illegally to Poltava for the consecration. His tonsure and promotion to the rank of archimandrite, etc., all took place very quickly since they feared that the exiled Bishop Damascene might be arrested at any moment. At first everyone wept, thinking that Vladyka Basil would be sent off to Priluky, but Archbishop Gregory kept him in Poltava.

Vladyka Basil's speech at his consecration was amazing. It was not so much a speech as a triumphant vow to remain faithful to the true Church of Christ and struggle "to my last breath" with all the apostates, blasphemers, renovationists and heretics - the self-consecrators and Buldovtsy.

Vladyka Basil remained in his Holy Trinity church, where he served constantly. But he also willingly served in other churches at the invitation of the clergy. From the first days of his episcopate, there began his thunderous speeches against the Bolsheviks - he gave one unfailingly at every service. He called them "apostates from God, violaters, blasphemers of the Faith of Christ, murderers, a satanic power, blood-suckers, destroyers of freedom and justice, fiends from hell". He constantly called on the people "to make them no allowances, to make no compromises with them, to fight and fight with the enemies of Christ, and not to fear tortures and death, for sufferings from Him are the highest happiness and joy". It was very difficult to enter a church where Vladyka Basil was serving. Not only the church itself, but the whole church property was filled with worshippers who had come to pray and listen to "Father Basil", as he was still called by everyone. A group of young people surrounded him and escorted him home from the church. He was kind and welcoming to everyone, he knew everyone by name. It happened that some people remained in the church after the service and asked him: "Vladyka, why do you say all this? There are constantly spies in the church, they are constantly following you, listening to you and denouncing you. We know them, and we're afraid for you." But he replied with a smile: "Yes, they don't deserve to hear such things. Well, okay, I won't do it anymore. Calm down, go in peace to your homes." But at the next service he would speak still more sharply and fearlessly. As we have already said, he was not distinguished by any particular eloquence, and at the same time thousands wanted to listen to him. His fearlessness, sincerity, the strength of his convictions, his constant, firm readiness to die for Christ and his calling on the people to make this sacrifice - this is what captivated and subdued his listeners.

Confession and Martyrdom

For a year he continued his archpastoral service in Poltava. Sometimes, while hiding from arrest, he would suddenly appear in some church at the beginning of a service, lead the service and then disappear, having changed into civil clothing even before the end of the service so as not to be caught by the GPU. However, on the eve of the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, 1926 he was summoned to Kharkov, where on September 7 he was arrested for his “anti-Soviet sermon the Trinity church”, and taken to the Butryki prison in Moscow. There, on September 24, he was sentenced to three years in the camps and imprisoned on Solovki. From there he was despatched to the far north - Bear Mountain or Murmansk or Kolyma, it is not known for certain. Four years passed in this way.

In 1927 Metropolitan Sergius issued his notorious "Declaration", which placed the Church into submission to the militant atheists. Vladyka Basil was the only bishop on Solovki at that time who openly refused to sign the declaration, writing a letter from Solovki to his flock entitled "Necessary canonical corrections to the epistle of Metropolitan Sergius and the Temporary Patriarchal Synod under him of July 16/29 July, 1927". In this letter, Vladyka Basil pointed out that according to the resolution of the Moscow Local Council of August 2/15, 1918, no one was allowed to claim that his politics was the politics of the All-Russian Church, and no one could impose his politics on any member of the Church by ecclesiastical means. And he went on:

"The Church cannot help but sympathize with the attempt by Metropolitan Sergius and his holy Synod to obtain a peaceful attitude from the Bolshevik persecutors of the All-Russian Orthodox Church towards her, for Christians are commanded by God: 'If it is possible on your part, be at peace with everyone' (Romans 12.18). But Christ allows the Church to accept from Metropolitan Sergius and his holy Synod only such a reconciliation with her persecutors, the Bolsheviks and their Soviet power, which will truly be the peace of Christ, that is, a peace of such a content and quality as is demanded by Christ, Who said: 'Seek first of all the Kingdom of God and His righteousness', and not earthly prosperity and security. For any other peace is undoubtedly forbidden by the Church of Christ unto all ages and eternity (John 14.27).

"Unfortunately, this attempt by Metropolitan Sergius and his holy Synod not only has not given us the peace of Christ with the Bolsheviks, but so far does not give us even the hope of such a peace, and that not only because of the Bolsheviks' stubborn enmity towards the Orthodox Church, but also because the attempt by Metropolitan Sergius and his Synod is being further advanced by them by uncanonical means, and consequently, not according to the path of Church righteousness. There are other defects in it from the ecclesiastical point of view, about which we shall speak at another time, if God gives us the opportunity. It is necessary immediately to move this attempt by Metropolitan Sergius and his holy Synod into the canonical stream of Church righteousness, and above all to declare to the Bolsheviks that only an All-Russian Local Orthodox Council of bishops (alone, or broadened by the participation of clergy and laity in the form of a general All-Russian Church Council) has the right to speak about politics and carry out any political activity in the name of our Church.

"Forgive our baseness, fathers and brothers, sisters and children in the Lord, and pray for my sins. May the mercy of the Lord give all of us joy without ceasing, beloved. The Lord God speaks to everyone who has ears to hear: 'Be faithful to Me unto death and I will give you a crown of life. But the fearful and those who are unfaithful to Me have their lot in the lake burning with fire and brimstone' (Revelation 2.10, 21,8)."

Vladyka wrote another personal letter to Metropolitan Sergius, in which he underlined Sergius' completely inadmissible concord with the atheist Soviet power. And he also wrote letters rebuking his successor in Poltava, Bishop Sergius (Grishin), who was a sergianist. These letters did not reach Bishop Sergius, but fell into other hands.

As a result of all this, in 1927 Vladyka Basil was sent to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. In October, 1928 (or November, 1929) he was exiled to Siberia, and was living in the village of Pyanovo, Bratsk region, Irkutsk province.

In the same year, according to one (dubious) source, he expressed, through Reader John, his disagreement with the decisions of the so-called “Nomadic Council” of the Catacomb Church.

On December 9, 1929 Vladyka Basil was arrested and taken to Moscow, and on February 3, 1930 he was convicted of “counter-revolutionary activity” and sentenced to death in accordance with article 58-10. He was shot on February 7, 1930 and buried in the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Nun Olga (Ivanovna Lektorskaya). She was born in 1898 in Poltava in the family of a priest, and received higher education. She worked as a typist in Poltava. She was a secret nun and served as a messenger between the Poltava group and the Voronezh, Kharkov and Kiev groups and Moscow. She was a trusted confidant of Bishop Basil, and kept his archive. On January 15, 1931 she was arrested for being “a participant in the Poltava group of the Odessa branch of the counter-revolutionary monarchist church organization, the True Orthodox Church”, and on December 14 was sentenced to three years in the camps and sent to Svirlag. On November 14, 1933 she was released from camp early, and on November 19 returned to Poltava. Nothing more is known about her.


(Sources: M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyatejshego Tikhona, Patriarkha Moskovskogo i Vseya Rossii, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1994, p. 848; Russkiye Pravoslavnye Ierarkhi, Paris: YMCA Press, 1986, p. 21; Protopriest Michael Polsky, Novye Mucheniki Rossijskiye, Jordanville, 1957, part II, chapter 4; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), “Katakombnaya Tserkov’: Kochuyushchij Soboer 1928 g.”, Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 3 (7), p. 7; M.V. Shkarovsky, Iosiflyanstvo, St. Petersburg, 1999, pp. 278-279; Za Khrista Postradavshiye, Moscow, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 223-224; http://www.pstbi.ru/bin/code.exe/frames/m/ind_oem.html?/ans; http://www.histor-ipt-kt.org/KNIGA/kiev.html)

ΜΕΙΚΤΑ ΜΟΝΑΣΤΗΡΙΑ

Ιωάννη Καρδάση, Χημικού-Οικονομολόγου

Συμβίωση ανδρών και γυναικών στο Μοναχισμό
Ο Ορθόδοξος Μοναχισμός ποτέ δεν ανδροκρατήθηκε. Είναι αλήθεια ότι η έρημος είναι (ή τουλάχιστον ήταν τον 4ο αι. μ.Χ.) τόπος καταλληλότερος για άνδρες, παρά για γυναίκες. Κι όμως, οι «πολιστές της ερήμου» (εκείνοι δηλ. που μετέτρεψαν την έρημο σε πόλη), δεν ήταν μόνο άνδρες. Αναρίθμητες μοναχές και ερημήτριες ακολούθησαν την μεγάλη αγία διδασκάλισσα της ερήμου Συγκλητική, που «έγινε για τις γυναίκες ό,τι ο Μέγας Αντώνιος για τους άντρες» (Ωρολόγιον το Μέγα, 5 Ιανουαρίου). Επίσης, μεγάλα γυναικεία αναστήματα του Μοναχισμού καθοδήγησαν άνδρες ή έγιναν παραδείγματα για άνδρες, ακόμη και Αγίους, όπως η αγία Μαρία η Αιγυπτία (παράδειγμα για τον άγιο Ζωσιμά, το βιογράφο της), η αγία Ισιδώρα η διά Χριστόν σαλή (ανακαλύφθηκε απ’ τον άγιο Πιτηρούμ μετά από θεία αποκάλυψη), αλλά και η αγία Ματρώνα η Χιοπολίτιδα, η αγία Γενεβιέβη των Παρισίων, η αγία Ειρήνη η Χρυσοβαλάντου (που έσωζε θανατοποινίτες με κατ’ ευθείαν παρέμβαση στον Αυτοκράτορα – εμφανιζόμενη στο όνειρό του, καθώς λέει η βιογραφία της) κ. ἄ, ενώ στα νεότερα χρόνια έχουμε την αγία Φιλοθέη την Αθηναία, την αγία Ελισάβετ της Ρωσίας κ. ἄ.
Ακόμη και το Άγιο Όρος δεν ανδροκρατείται, αφού αποτίνει φόρο τιμής στη μεγάλη Ηγουμένη του, τη Θεοτόκο, που εικονίζεται με τα διακριτικά της ηγουμενίας να εποπτεύει τα Αγιορείτικα μοναστήρια.
Υπήρξαν όμως και Αγίες που διατέλεσαν ηγουμένες μικτών μονών, δηλαδή μονών με δυο κτηριακά συγκροτήματα (ένα για άντρες και ένα για γυναίκες) στον ίδιο αύλειο χώρο. Τέτοια είναι η αγία Χίλντα του Γουΐτμπυ στην Ορθόδοξη αρχαία Αγγλία (614 - 680 μ.Χ.):
«Η αγία Χίλντα ήταν από τις πιο γνωστές ηγουμένες μοναστηριών της εποχής εκείνης. Το μοναστήρι της ήταν μικτό, με άντρες και γυναίκες, που ζούσαν σε ξεχωριστά κτίρια, όπως και στη σημερινή Ιερά Μονή Τιμίου Προδρόμου στο Έσσεξ. Αξιοσημείωτο είναι πως μία ηγουμένη κατά την Κέλτικη Εκκλησία είχε δικαιώματα πνευματικής καθοδήγησης, αλλά όχι δικαίωμα χορήγησης άφεσης αμαρτιών και άσκησης των υπολοίπων ιερατικών καθηκόντων. Έτσι πολλοί συμβουλεύονταν τις ιερές ηγουμένες για θέματα πνευματικά» (Παντελή Χατζηιωάννου, "Ο βίος του αγίου Δαβίδ Ουαλίας" (ανέκδοτη μελέτη), Εισαγωγή, σημ. xxxv).
Ας δούμε επίσης άλλο ένα τόπο υπέροχης συμβίωσης μοναχών και μοναζουσών, που αναφέρεται στο έργο του Αναστασίου Κ. Καραγιάννη, "Η οσιοπαρθενομάρτυς Θεοδώρα η Πελοποννησία (η εν Βάστα Αρκαδίας)", εκδ. Απόστολος Βαρνάβας, Αθήνα 2005, σελ. 22-23 (υποσ.): το Σαραντάριο όρος (Παλαιστίνη).
«Καλό είναι, προκειμένου να συγκρίνουμε απλά την απάθεια, στην οποία έφθασε η Αγία Θεοδώρα, ζώντας επί χρόνια σε ανδρικό κοινόβιο, με την απάθεια των αναχωρητών και μοναχών, οι οποίοι έζησαν θαυμαστά, άνδρες και γυναίκες μαζί, στο Σαραντάριο όρος, όπου ενήστευσε ο Ιησούς Χριστός επί 40 ημέρες, αν δούμε τι γράφει ο Ευάγριος (6ος μ.Χ. αιώνας) στην Εκκλησιαστική του Ιστορία για το βίο αυτών [σ.σ. πρόκειται για τον Ευάγριο το Σχολαστικό από τη Συρία και όχι για τον Ωριγενιστή του 4ου αι. Ευάγριο Ποντικό].
[…] Άλλοι έμεναν με θηρία μαζί και άλλοι είχαν επινοήσει άλλο είδος ασκήσεως, διαμένοντες μέσα στην καυτή έρημο, άνδρες και γυναίκες μαζί, αφού είχαν καλύψει μόνον τα διακριτικά του φύλου τους, ενώ το υπόλοιπο σώμα τους ήταν γυμνό, περιφρονώντας τη ζέστη και το ψύχος.
Η απάθειά τους προς όλα τα μάταια και τερπνά του κόσμου ήταν παραδειγματική. Σε τέτοιο σημείο απαθείας έφθασαν, ώστε με τους άνδρες ένοιωθαν σαν άνδρες και με τις γυναίκες σαν γυναίκες και επιθυμούσαν να μετέχουν σε κάθε περίπτωση και των δύο φύσεων (αρσενικής και θηλυκής) και να μην είναι μιας μόνο φύσεως.
Διότι τόσο πολύ, λέγει ο Ευάγριος, τ’ αντίθετα αναμίχθηκαν, ώστε η Θεία Χάρη συγκέντρωνε τα άμικτα και πάλι τα διαιρούσε, συγκατοικούσε δε μέσα τους η ζωή και η νέκρωση, δηλαδή τα ενάντια και προς τη φύση και προς τα πράγματα. Έτσι, εκεί μεν που υπήρχε πάθος, ένοιωθαν νεκρούς τους εαυτούς τους, ωσάν να ήταν μέσα στον τάφο, εκεί δε που υπήρχε αρετή, ένοιωθαν προς το Θεό ικεσία, δύναμη στο σώμα, σφρίγος νεανικό, και ας ήταν προχωρημένης ηλικίας».
Σήμερα μικτή μονή είναι η μονή Τιμίου Προδρόμου στο Έσσεξ της Αγγλίας, ιδρυθείσα από τον Γέροντα Σωφρόνιο Σαχάρωφ (1896-1993), μέλος της οποίας είναι και η συγγραφέας και παιδαγωγός αδελφή Μαγδαληνή, βιβλία της οποίας κυκλοφορούν και στα ελληνικά, όπως το «Σκέψεις για τα παιδιά στην Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία σήμερα», έκδ. μονής Έσσεξ.
Άδικα λοιπόν αναζητούν κάποιοι δείγματα «μισογυνισμού» στους μεγάλους διδασκάλους του Ορθόδοξου Χριστιανικού αγώνα. Πίσω από τα λόγια των μεγάλων Αγίων υπάρχει μια άγνωστη σε μας (τους εκτός μοναχικού βίου και φωτισμού) πραγματικότητα – μια πραγματικότητα που χαρακτηρίζεται από μεγάλη αγάπη, συγχώρηση (συν+χώρηση) και αγωνία για την αιώνια και ισότιμη σωτηρία «πάντων και πασών» (Ρηγηνιώτης).