ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΓΙΑΡΣΩΦ

THE DAY TRUE ORTHODOXY SAVED THE WORLD

One of the great confessors of the Catacomb Church was Bishop Michael (Yershov) of Kazan. Stories about him began to seep out to the West towards the end of his life and after his death in 1974. But it was not until a full (739-page) biography of him appeared recently that his full stature and importance became apparent.

Michael Vasilyevich Yershov was born in 1911 into a poor family. His father became a Bolshevik and persecuted and beat his son, but was later converted by him and repented. In 1931, at the age of twenty, Michael was imprisoned for the first time for his rejection of the Sovietized Moscow Patriarchate. Apart from a short period in the early 1940s, he remained in the camps for the rest of his life, being transported from one end of the GULAG to the other and dying, still in prison, on June 4, 1974. He presented an astounding image of patience and suffering that converted many to the Faith. He was a wonderworker and had the gifts of healing and prophecy. But perhaps his most astounding miracle was worked in the Mordovian camps in 1962, together with his fellow inmate and secret bishop, Basil Vasilyevich Kalinin (+1995).

“It was August, 1962. The Cuban crisis! The attention of the world was glued to it, and it affected even the special section hidden in the Mordovian forests. ‘It has to be…! Khruschev has penetrated into the bosom of the Americans!’ That was how the zeks [criminal inmates] interpreted it. People living beyond the barbed wire admitted the possibility that in time of war the local authorities would annihilate them, as the most dangerous politicals, first of all.” “At the special section the zeks insisted that Moscow had issued an order that in time of war the politicals and recidivists would be annihilated first of all. The Cuban crisis was soon resolved, and our camp calmed down. Many years later I heard that the fears of the zeks in 1962 had not been without foundation. They had really been threatened with annihilation at that time.” “In 1964, soon after the fall of Khruschev, a colonel from the Georgian KGB cam e to our camp. And he said, among other things: ‘Khruschev adopted the policy of the complete physical annihilation of the politicals, and first of all the recidivists. During the Cuban crisis everything was prepared for your shooting – even a pit was dug’.” [Bishop] Basil Vasilyevich Kalinin remembered that the holy hierarch [Michael] once unexpectedly aroused him from sleep with the words: “Six minutes are remaining. Get up, Basil, and pray! The world is in danger!” And then he learned that this was the critical moment in the Cuban crisis…

Truly, “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5.16). For “when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched” (Numbers 11.2), and when Elijah prayed to the Lord the heavens were closed and again opened (James 5.17). And when the two True Orthodox bishops Michael and Basil prayed to the Lord, the world was saved from nuclear holocaust…

“Let the world mock us,” wrote Bishop Michael, “but we, poor people, must give all our strength and desire in prayer to God”. “We must strictly watch over ourselves, that we do not fall under the condemnation and wrath of God. We must pour out the balsam of our strength and purity of heart whatever happens, our simple, true and holy prayer to God, which is bound by nothing except simplicity and belief in our eternal inheritance. For the Lord looks on the righteous and on their holy appeals, so that the prayer offered may be the earnest of our strength and the balsam of purification, by which the world might be preserved and the catastrophe which cannot even be expressed in words – God forbid! – might be averted.”

“You yourselves know that a city is preserved if a righteous man is praying in it. Once the righteous man has left the city, the elements rule in the city. And so, dear ones, remember this one thing, that now is not that day on which the universe was created, and everything was brought into being, but now is the day on which danger menaces the creation…”

Besides this pure, simple, burning prayer of a righteous man, Bishop Michael insisted on the pure confession of the True Orthodox Faith.

“Between the Church of the Tikhonite orientation [the True Orthodox Church] and the legal church [the Moscow Patriarchate] there is the following difference. The Church of the Tikhonite orientation zealously fulfils all the laws and rules that are prescribed by the Holy Fathers, while the legal church tolerates atheism, does not struggle against iniquity, but is reconciled with it. I recognize the One Apostolic Church. The legal church recognizes Lenin and Stalin, and serves Soviet power and carries out the orders of the atheist antichrists.”

“Do not believe any sects: this is a cunning contemporary politics that has come out from the West. There are even some that are like the Orthodox faith. But you, my brothers and dear ones, must not go anywhere – may the Lord keep you! There are also many enemies of our Orthodox Christian faith, we have many enemies. The first is Catholicism, our most cunning and evil enemy, and the Lutherans, and all the sects, which came out of America and now, like dirt, have spread through the whole earth. It is difficult for us poor people now, we have no defence from men, everyone wants to offend us. But we are faithful. We are the most true patriots of our Mother, the Holy Orthodox Christian Eastern Apostolic Church. We are patriots of Holy Rus’ and we know the tricks of all kinds of people, and we will not deviate in any direction: for Holy Rus’ is sanctified by the sufferings of her own people. Every foot is creeping into Russi a and wanting to defile her. No, Russia will preserve all the holy mysteries, even if through small, simple people, but she will show the whole world light, and strength, and greatness. Dear ones, the Orthodox Church will conquer the whole universe. Fear not, my dear ones, the Lord will conquer evil. Amen.”

Bishop Michael was a simple, uneducated man. But he attained the spiritual heights. “In my lifetime I have not studied the sciences, but I have come to know the keys of the universe and have reached the depths of the abyss. It is hard and difficult without the Supreme Creator. With the Creator and His Life-giving Spirit and the righteousness of Christ I have passed through the arena of an indescribable life…”

Vladimir Moss.
July 20 / August 2, 2012.
Holy Prophet Elijah.

HIEROMARTYR THEODORE  RAFANOVICH  (+  1975)

By  Vladimir  Moss

Archimandrite Theodore, in the world Theodore Andreyevich Rafanovich, was born in 1883 in the village of Khanichi, Klimovichi uyezd, Mogilev province in the family of the Priest Andrew Rafanovich. He used to sing on the cliros in the local church.

Once as a child he wandered into the rye and came across a wolf. Thinking that it was a dog, he began to beat and shoo it away. Then some adults came up, and recognizing the "dog" to be a wolf, drove it away.

Theodore went to study in Mogilev gymnasium and Mogilev theological seminary, where he was the only non-smoker among the students. But Theodore was orphaned when quite young, and it was left to his sister, Anna Andreyevna, later Schema-Nun Vera, to care for his education. Since he was not a quick learner, she wrote to Fr. John of Kronstadt asking him to pray for him. Soon she received a reply from Fr. John:

"I have prayed for your brother".

Immediately Theodore showed a dramatic improvement in his performance.

On leaving the seminary, Fr. Theodore married Sophia Vladimirovna Bzhezinskaya, the daughter of the dean of Klimovichi uyezd. They had five children - George, Nicholas, Andrew, Natalia and Zinaida. Nicholas and George perished during the war. He was ordained to the priesthood and in 1904 was sent to the village of Grabovka, Gomel uyezd, now Terekhovsky region, Gomel province. In 1908 he was transferred to the post of rector of the church in the village of Sherstin, Cherkovsky uyezd, Mogilev province, now Vetkovsky region, Gomel province. At the same time he worked as teacher of the Law of God in the Sherstin church-parish school (until December, 1917). He was a very strict teacher, demanded ideal discipline in his lessons, and could punish children for small matters.

Fr. Theodore’s spiritual father was the future hieromartyr, Fr. Paul Levashev (+1937), who was also the godfather of all his children. His wife’s spiritual father was Protopriest John Gashkevich (+1917), of the village of Korma, whose body was found to be incorrupt after his death.

Fr. Theodore was a very zealous priest, and many people came to his services and to seek his advice from the surrounding districts. In 1922, when renovationism began, he and Fr. Paul were among the few priests who stood firmly for Orthodoxy. People came to him from many regions, abandoning their renovationist pastors, as a result of which he acquired a large parish.

Once, in 1922, when Fr. Theodore was away giving communion to a dying person, the village Bolsheviks seized the church and took away the valuables. On hearing the news, Fr. Theodore hurried back and bumped into the Bolsheviks as they were carrying away some church utensils. He stopped them, ordered them to return the things, and – such was his influence – they obeyed. However, this was reported to Gomel, and people came from there with the police and took the valuables away again.

Patriarch Tikhon sent a bishop to the Gomel region in order to receive penitent renovationist clergy back into the Church. At that time many repented and returned to the Orthodox Faith. But on his return journey this bishop was arrested by the authorities and sent to a camp. Fr. Theodore was under constant observation by the authorities during this period. For his defence of Orthodoxy he was awarded a pectoral cross by Patriarch Tikhon on April 1/14, 1924.

Once in their ignorance the servant of God Anna and her brother put their signatures to a document "on behalf of the Living Church". When they told Fr. Theodore about this, he clutched his head and said:

"What have you done! Have you got any golden coins? Take them to those who collected your signatures and ask them to blot out your signatures."

Anna and her brother did as they were told. Their signatures were blotted out.

In 1923 he was arrested and exiled to Chernigov, where he served in the lower church of the Holy Trinity monastery with Archbishop Pachomius of Chernigov, the future hieromartyr. Many of his spiritual children came to him here, which elicited the envy of some Chernigov priests, who slandered him to Archbishop Pachomius. Vladyka banned him from serving. Some time later, when Vladyka was beginning to celebrate the litury, he felt himself as it were bound, and it was revealed to him that the reason was his unjust punishment of Fr. Theodore. Vladyka stopped the service and ordered Fr. Theodore to be brought to him in the altar. Bowing down to him to the earth, Vladyka asked his forgiveness and blessed him to serve with him.

When Fr. Theodore was in prison he was sentenced to be shot. The sentence was appointed for the following day. That evening Fr. Theodore was praying in his solitary underground cell. Suddenly he heard chanting beside him:

"Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy..."

He turned round and saw a vision - a multitude of reposed souls were standing behind him with burning candles in their hands. They were chanting these words of prayer and beseeching God to deliver Fr. Theodore from death. The next morning the decree concerning Fr. Theodore's execution was repealed.

While he was in prison, Fr. Theodore refused to take some milk because it was a fasting period. The Mother of God appeared to him and said:

"Servant of God, drink the milk."

After this he accepted it with gratitude and drank it.

He once had another vision of the Mother of God. She was walking over the earth so weightlessly that the grass and flowers did not even sway under her feet.

Once during winter in the camp he was carrying water, and the water splashed over him. His hands began to freeze, and he called on the Mother of God:

"Queen of heaven, warm me!"

Immediately his hands became hot, and even the water became hot.

"But the people around me were freezing," recalled Fr. Theodore.

While Fr. Theodore was in prison his son Andrew died (in 1926). His wife died on October 12, 1928. She was buried in Sherstin, and Fr. Theodore took his children away to Milcha. He remained alone in the rank of a protopriest. And since he had no flock, he used to wander round the marshes praying:

"Mother of God, gather together my children for me."

And she brought them to him from all over Belorussia.

"I gathered you all through the Mother of God," he later said, "and I entrust you all to her."

Therefore he would grieve deeply and weep when one of them left him.

In 1927 Fr. Theodore refused to recognize the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, which placed the Church in submission to the atheists, and he had to serve in house churches. The authorities searched for him, but Fr. Theodore constantly changed his domicile and escaped from his persecutors. Knowing of his loyalty to the true faith, many people came to him for spiritual support from the renovationists and sergianists.

Fr. Theodore was well hidden by reliable people. New people who wanted to come to him would have to spend a great deal of time and effort to persuade those close to him to let them meet batyushka.

In 1928 he was arrested in Chernigov and sent to Solovki. He was released in 1934, and on returning home bought a house in Vetka, where he lived with his sons Nicholas and Yuri. Then he was arrested again, was tried in Gomel and exiled to Kotlas in 1935. On the road back from exile he was arrested again. During the interrogation and murder of another priest who had been arrested with him, Fr. Theodore miraculously managed to escape. He went to his sister Anna in Moscow, and stayed with her from 1939 to 1940. Then she took him to Staroye Selo in Belorussia to live with the Nosov family. He hid with them for a while. He also lived for some time in the town of Rechitsa with the confessor Gregory. In 1941 he was hiding in the village of Obidovichi, Bykhov region, Mogilev province.

Once, in the village of Strelki some people were waiting to receive communion from him. It was winter. Batyushka was brought to them in a cart covered with straw. But then he was arrested and taken by train under convoy from Rogachev to Gomel. All his things were taken, and he was left only with his passport and his comb. As the train came into Saltanovka station, his guards fell asleep, and Fr. Theodore, remembering that he knew a Xenia there, quickly jumped off the train. It was snowing. Fr. Theodore lost his way, and sat down to die. Suddenly he heard some voices urging on a horse. They came up to him:

"Where are you going?" they asked.

"I'm going to Claudia Alexeyevna in Selevanikha - she's my daughter-in-law," he replied.

Claudia Alexeyevna was a teacher and lived with Xenia in the house of Matushka Matveyevna. Having reached Matushka's house, Fr. Theodore knocked on the window. The mistress of the house was aghast. He was frozen, wet and exhausted. They warmed him and gave him some fresh clothes.

In the morning Stepanida ran into the hut, and, learning that Fr. Theodore was there, called Tatiana. Since a stranger, a teacher, was living in the house, Fr. Theodore had to move immediately to another place. He went with Tatiana to the village of Ugly. On their way they saw a man in a black overcoat running towards them.

"That's it! A policemen's after us!" went through their heads.

But it was a false alarm: the man, who worked on the railways, passed by them without touching them.

That day was the feast of the Forty Martyrs (March 9 according to the Church calendar), and Fr. Theodore served a service to them with the master of the house John, his wife and daughter and Tatiana helping him. After this rumours circulated to the effect that Fr. Theodore had been arrested, but that he had managed to run away and was again at liberty. Those to whom he had been going for a service just before his arrest were delighted at the news.

During the war, when Belorussia was occupied by the Germans, Fr. Theodore came out of the catacombs and began to serve openly. He served in the church in the village of Obidovichi in 1941, and also, from 1942 to 1943, in a church in Gorodets. In his sermons he angrily denounced Soviet power.

"He gives such sermons about the communists," said some Sovietized people, "that if the Russians were here they would tear him to pieces."

He would angrily denounce Soviet power, the communists and their Moscow Patriarchate. For this he was persecuted by the authorities not only as a secret priest, but also as a zealous opponent of the whole Soviet regime.

When the Germans retreated, the church in Obidovichi burned to the ground. The Soviet armies arrived. By this time Fr. Theodore was no longer serving openly, but at home. He was summoned to the village soviet and warned:

"If you want to serve, go to a parish, old man!"

The clairvoyant Matushka Paulina from Gomel told him to hide, and he, following her advice, began to live secretly with his spiritual children in Belorussia. In 1944 he hid with Michael Klimenkov in Bykhov, from 1945 to 1946 – in Obidovichi with the psalm-reader Frosya, and in 1946 in Klimovichi region, Mogilev province. From 1950 he was living in the village of Khimy, Rogachev region, Mogilev province. Other places he moved to at different times included: the village of Svyatoye (now Kirovo), Zhlobin region, Polapovka station in Buda-Koshelev region and Saltanovka station, Zhlobin region.

In 1946 some people from the KGB went to the elder Peter Razumovsky (who by many accounts was a secret bishop) and began to demand that he reveal to them where Fr. Theodore was living. The elder only replied:

"I don't know where he is, but I will tell you one thing: the Holy Spirit is upon him! Fear him - he will strike you!"

"At night people would come to him, but during the day - never," remembers the servant of God T.

70 people would gather round batyushka by night. When there was a danger, no-one would come. Sometimes his spiritual children would crawl up to the house on hands and knees. Some parishioners who are still alive remember the unexpected joy they had:

"What joy it was going to him. It was wonderful - through the rye and the oats!" remembers Abbess M.

Once Fr. Theodore was recognized by the GPU at a station. He was arrested. Then they took him through the villages under arrest, until some believers in Osipovichi ransomed him for 500 rubles.

Once, when Fr. Theodore was being hunted by the GPU, the president of the local soviet, who was a Jew, came to the hut where he was living. At that moment Fr. Theodore was praying with his prayer-rope. The man asked him who he was. Fr. Theodore said that he was a wanderer - they did not touch him.

Fr. Theodore was clairvoyant. If a person came to him with an offering but was secretly begrudging it, Fr. Theodore would be able to read his thoughts and would meet him with the words:

"To give or not to give?"

From others, however, he would accept offerings with gratitude.

Once Fr. Theodore was serving the Liturgy in a wooden cabin. After the service, he refused the food that was offered him, sat down and began to weep like a child.

"Take me away from here - out of this farmstead," he repeated insistently.

Now there was some rye growing on this farmstead. They took him there, and immediately after the police descended upon the house. They were looking for Fr. Theodore and turned the whole house upside down, sticking their rifle-butts into everything possible. By that time Fr. Theodore had managed to go from the farmstead rye into the collective farm rye, which began just at that point, and to hide there.

It was in about 1956-57, at the feast of the Protecting Veil in October. A KGB agent came to the house of Fr. Theodore's reader at just the time that Fr. Theodore was in the house. The reader did not let the KGB agent beyond the door of her house, and he, after looking round on both sides, went away. In this village there worked another KGB agent, and the first agent, going to him, said that in the house of the reader there was a priest whom they were just about to arrest. This second agent had a believing mother who also went to Fr. Theodore. Her son warned her that she should not go to the house where the secret priest was serving - otherwise they would arrest her, too. She passed what she had heard on to her daughter-in-law, who ran and told everything to another woman from Fr. Theodore's flock.

"Don't worry - there's no-one there", said this woman soothingly.

But immediately the first woman had gone she ran to Fr. Theodore and warned him. At that moment Fr. Theodore was doing the proskomedia, and the house was full of people who had assembled for the feast of the Protecting Veil. On hearing about the coming raid, the people became very anxious. Fr. Theodore turned to them and said:

"Don't go anywhere! Everyone make 36 signs of the cross on the doors and all round."

All the adults and children carried out this obedience fervently with their prayer-ropes.

"Let no-one leave the Liturgy!" warned Fr. Theodore again.

And the master of the house added: "May the power and will of God be done!"

Everyone stood up to pray and the service began. They prayed very fervently, expecting that they would be arrested the next day. Everyone wept as they read the akathist to the Mother of God. Fr. Theodore calmed them all and said in his sermon:

"If God does not wish it, they can do nothing to us. Then even if hell were let loose, the Lord would not allow it!"

That is what happened this time - the service ended and everyone dispersed without trouble to their homes.

When Fr. Theodore lived in Khymy, people would come to him there from distant places, passing points in which there were the houses of his parishioners. A kind of "post office" operated in these houses, and in them people could learn about any danger that was threatening.

The village of Khymy consisted of three parallel streets, on the last of which lived Fr. Theodore. The neighbours knew that in this house there lived a priest. Sixty to seventy people used to come to Fr. Theodore at this time. So as to be next to their batyushka, the members of his flock would sometimes organize their work on the spot. So the future Metropolitan E. pastured cows there for three years, while Abbess M. lived in Khymy for three months, having got work there preparing peat. She had to go to work in the morning, and for her sake Fr. Theodore began the service at 4 in the morning. Usually he began the service at 5 or 6 o'clock and served until 5 or 6 in the evening. Confessions would take a long time with him. He usually served alone, in a white podryasnik.

A woman who belonged to Fr. Theodore's flock worked in the nearby Beletsky peat factory. She learned in the factory that a raid on Fr. Theodore was being planned, and soon a message went out through the "post office" that people should not go to Fr. Theodore any more. They say that at this time some people were returning from Fr. Theodore carrying holy water and prosphoras. On the road they noticed a parked "Kozlik" car. It was dark, and the car followed them keeping them always in its headlights. Realizing that they were being followed, the Christians waited until they came to some thickets. Then they turned sharply off the road and managed to hide.

Another woman in Fr. Theodore's flock got to know a secret detective who was pretending to be a believer. In her ignorance she gave him all the addresses where Fr. Theodore usually served. Soon the KGB summoned her and gave her an exact account of her conversation with the detective "Christian". The police went to all the addresses on the list. They did not find Fr. Theodore because the woman had not told the detective about the house in Khymy, where Fr. Theodore happened to be at that moment.

The police would take three houses of Fr. Theodore's parishioners and search them from top to bottom. But he was not there - he had managed to hide. Once the police came to a house where he was staying, and he again managed to hide. However, the mistress of the house, Pimenikha, was so frightened that she died from fear. It was particularly difficult for people to gather at Fr. Theodore's houses when Khrushchev came to power.

In the course of 20 years Fr. Theodore managed to gather a flock of about 1000 people. People would come to him from Mogilev, Minsk and Bryansk districts.

Fr. Theodore was a strict priest, but at the same time he was very attentive and loving. For example, there is the following incident from the childhood of Metropolitan E. He was tending the cows, and fell ill. It was a fasting period. Fr. Theodore came to him and said:

"Eat fish."

E. began to refuse: "How can I eat fish during a fast? I won't!"

"You're ill, eat fish," insisted batyushka.

The sick boy stubbornly refused. But Fr. Theodore did not go away until he had fed him.

One woman told him that she had such-and-such a job and lived in such-and-such conditions, which made it impossible for her to eat only fasting food during the fast, however much she wanted to.

"Well, what can you do, eat what you're eating, that's the kind of work you have," replied Fr. Theodore.

Fr. Theodore was against his spiritual children going to the collective farms, which he could not stand.

His parishioners asked him how they were to behave when they found themselves beside ruined churches or churches in which the Moscow Patriarchate served. He said that in such cases the church buildings had once served Orthodoxy, and should be treated with respect. On going up to one such church, they should stop, look up to heaven and say:

"O Lord, Thy grace has departed to the heavens."

After this they should cross themselves and stand for a little.

Fr. Theodore strictly forbade his spiritual children to go to services in the Moscow Patriarchate, and said that it was not right even to socialize with those who went to those churches. He would be particularly strict about this with those who were somewhat negligent in this respect. He said that one could go into the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate only for one reason - to venerate the holy things - the wonderworking icons, the holy relics and the cross. Relics and the cross, he said, retain their grace-filled power until the end of the world.

"In the Soviet churches they won't baptize your children, they'll 'red-star-ize' them," he said. (This is a play on words in Russian: "Nye okrestyat, a ozvyezdyat".)

He strictly forbade people to baptize or be married in the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, and gave a penance to anybody who ignored this command.

This is what he told his spiritual children:

"If you go into a church of the Moscow Patriarchate and you decide to stand a little and see how their service goes, remember that you are not allowed to pray even one prayer with them. So don't get carried away by their chanting in case you begin to pray with them. Let's say they are singing 'Holy God', and then they cross themselves. Don't cross yourselves at the same time, but wait until they've done it, then you can cross yourselves."

As a rule, the "Theodorites" went into the churches of the patriarchate only in order to venerate the holy things before or after the service.

Fr. Theodore used to tell his spiritual children the following:

"The communists have been hurled at the Church like a crazy dog. Their Soviet emblem - the hammer and sickle - corresponds to their mission. With the hammer they beat people over the head, and with the sickle they mow down the churches. But then the Masons will remove the communists and take control of Russia. Priests will come from the West who will both go to hell themselves and will drag you down with them."

Fr. Theodore would carry with him everything he needed for serving. He had only one great need - a bishop. Fr. Theodore was very sad because he could not find a true bishop of the Catacomb Church. However, some of his spiritual children who lived in the south of Russia informed him that in their region there lived a Catacomb bishop, Anthony (Galynsky-Mikhailovsky), who had just been freed from prison. In 1956 or a little later, Archbishop Anthony was planning to visit Kiev, and he invited Fr. Theodore to visit him. It was a touching meeting, and Fr. Theodore, recognizing a true hierarch, placed himself under his omophorion.

"He is not an earthly man," he said. "Although I am sick and weak I stood through the whole service"

On May 1, 1969, when Fr. Theodore was living in Khymy, someone betrayed his whereabouts and the authorities burst in looking for him. However, the local president helped him - although he knew that Fr. Theodore was there, he told the searchers:

"He hasn't lived with us for a long time."

This averted the danger for a certain time, but the person who really saved Fr. Theodore then was a certain Alexander Gudkov who put Fr. Theodore onto his motorcycle and drove him to his home in Gomel. So Fr. Theodore settled secretly in Gomel with Alexander and his wife Anfisa. Their home was just opposite the police-station!

In 1971, however, Alexander died through electrocution and Fr. Theodore left his flat and returned to Khymy. Fr. Theodore performed Alexander's funeral service in the following fashion. The coffin with the body lay on the first floor of the house, while he read the service standing on the second floor… On the ninth day after Alexander's repose a fiery pillar was seen over his grave. As a result Fr. Theodore asked to be buried in the cemetery next to him.

In the town of Svetlogorsk there lived Fr. Theodore's daughter, Natalya. During his life the police often visited her, looking for him. They tried to force her by threats and violence to reveal the whereabouts of her father. When she refused they beat her and even threatened to rape her. Her husband ran away since they threatened him with shooting for hiding Fr. Theodore.

Once when two policemen were searching the house, a miracle took place. Before they arrived Natalya succeeded in lying down stock-still on a trunk. But the Lord turned away their eyes so that they did not see her. One of them even began to lift the lid of the trunk, but, without noticing her, said:

"How heavy this is!"

The other policeman told him to leave the trunk in peace. So they left without seeing or touching her.

Abbess M. says that in the last four years of his life Fr. Theodore was very sick. He could hardly move and his mind became somewhat clouded and a childlike quality began to appear in him. All the same he continued to serve and feed the people, helped by a novice nun.

Fr. Theodore died in the village of Khymy on Palm Sunday, the day of the Vilnius martyrs - April 14, 1975 according to the Church calendar. This coincided with Radonitsa that year. When he died his daughter and her husband came to hieromonk E. at three o'clock in the morning and handed him a letter from Archbishop Anthony with the command to perform the funeral service for Fr. Theodore. E. sat in the car with them and on arriving carried out the funeral service. (Archbishop Anthony had been informed that Fr. Theodore was dying by a nun who came to tell him.)

Metropolitan E. says that Archbishop Anthony had ordered that Fr. Theodore be buried in the cemetery. But when he died, the lady of the house in which he was living secretly was frightened to bury him in a cemetery, fearing that through this the authorities would find out that a catacomb priest had been hiding with her. She insisted that Fr. Theodore be buried next to her house. Fr. Theodore's daughter agreed with this.

And so he was buried at night under the wall of her house, wearing the golden cross which his Holiness Patriarch Tikhon had given him during the years of struggle with renovationism. The owners of this house were also frightened about the sacred vessels in which Fr. Theodore had served, as well as his other things. So some time later Nun A. came and handed them over to Hieromonk E.

Perhaps because of this disobedience with regard to Archbishop Anthony's command, this house burned down at the beginning of the 1980s, and Fr. Theodore's coffin was covered with logs.

In the second week of Pascha, 1992, Fr. Theodore's body was transferred to the cemetery in Khymy, and he was buried by Bishop Benjamin (Rusalenko) of the Kuban with the participation of his daughter, grandsons and spiritual children.

After Fr. Theodore's death several members of his flock went to no other person for spiritual sustenance. They had the impression that Fr. Theodore was the only true pastor.

Fr. Theodore was canonized by a Council of the Russian True Orthodox Church in Odessa on November 1, 2008.

HIEROMARTYR MICHAEL OF CHISTOPOL (+ 1974/1977)

By Vladimir Moss

Fr. Michael (Yershov) was born on September 17 (or October 12), 1911, in the village of Mamykovo in Kazan province, in a peasant family. According to another source, he was born in the village of Barskoye, Yenaruskino, Aksubayevo volost, Chistopol canon, Tataria. His father, whose name was Basil, had taken part in the Russo-Japanese War, the First World War and the Civil War. From 1920 he had become a cobbler and president of the committee of poverty in the village. There were five children in the family, four daughters and a son. Michael’s mother was called Daria.
Michael finished two classes at elementary school, and at the age of ten began to help his father, working as a cobbler. He went to church services and sang in the choir. When he was twelve years old, as he was receiving communion a church in Chistopol, an elder saw him and said: "This lad will take upon himself the sins of the whole people." From 1929 the church was closed and his father became president of the village soviet and began to persecute his son for reading service books and constantly praying at home. As a result of this he went blind. Afterwards, when he repented, he recovered his sight.
In November, 1930 Fr. Michael left his father’s home because he did not agree with the family’s joining the collective farm. At some time during that year he arrived in Chistopol, where he fell seriously ill. On recovering, he got to know Elder Plato, who told him: “You will suffer very much for the name of God and for the people. Only don’t seek anything from anyone, rely only on Almighty God. By the mercy of God I knew about you before.” Together they went round the villages taking part in joint prayer-services.
According to one source, Fr. Michael was ordained to the priesthood in 1930 by the Catacomb Archbishop and future Hieromartyr Nectarius (Trezvinsky) in Kazan. According to another (dubious) source, however, his ordination took place in September, 1933 at the hands of Hieromonk Peter (?). He was a fervent opponent of the Moscow Patriarchate, and believed that it was wrong to have any contact with it.
Fr. Michael and Elder Plato were arrested on March 3, 1931 in Chistopol, but he was released on May 1. A few days later, he was arrested again in Kazan, but was released after twelve days. He then went underground, wandering round the villages and earning his bread as a cobbler. He walked in chains, carried out joint prayer services and healed the sick and the demon-possessed.
In April, 1933 he was arrested in the village of Aksubayevo, but was released in July. On June 7, 1934 he was arrested in Bilyarsk, taken by convoy to Chistopol, then to Kazan and on July 10 condemned to eight years in the camps for anti-Soviet agitation. He served his term in the Mariinsk and Baikal-Amur camps, and then in Ulan-Ude and near Murmansk, doing general work. In 1940 he was transferred to Kandalaksha, where they were building a railway. He worked in the refectory. In May, 1942 he was sent to Tataria to work on the Ulyanovsk-Sviyazhsk railway. There he worked in the field hospital. On September 25 he was sent for defensive works in the village of Stepanovka, Buinsk region, from where he escaped to Chistopol, then to Aksubayevo region. On October 16 (17), 1942 he was arrested and cast into Chistopol prison. On January 23, 1943 he was sentenced “for desertion from defensive works” to seven (eight) years in prison. On February 16, 1943, according to one source, he was released, but according to another he was sent to call-up, but, not wishing to serve in the army, escaped. After this he served secretly in the village of Yelantovo, Sheremetyevo region. He celebrated Pascha on April 12, 1943 in a tent on a hill not far from Yelantovo with a group of twelve women. Later those attending the services in the tent rose to sixty. In September, during a service on the hill, the police arrived and drove away the believers; some were arrested and sent to the camps. On December 12 (or 15 or 26), 1943 he was arrested again for church preaching and cast into Chistopol prison. He was accused of being “a leader of the anti-Soviet activity of the underground of the True Orthodox Church of Tikhonite tendency in Tataria”, and on August 18, 1944 was sentenced to death by shooting. He spent 81 days in the death cell; they starved him the whole time. On October 25, 1944, they commuted the death sentence to fifteen years' hard labour, of which he was informed on November 9. He was sent to Vorkutlag, where he worked in the mines, and later – in the cobblers’ workshop. In 1945 he appealed for clemency to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, but his request was declined.
In October, 1946 he got to know Basil Kalinin, healing him from an illness of the spine which had paralyzed him completely for three years. He came up to him, took him by the hand and said:
"Get up and walk."
He also healed the withered hand of John Kokarev and the leprous face of Gregory Rusakov (the future Hieromonk Philaret), which was already stinking. He took the whole crust from his face.
Fr. Michael passed through almost all the prisons of the Soviet Gulag: Kazan, Arzamas, Vorkuta, Olga, Bannino, Sakhalin, Nagayeva, Magadan, Suman, Kolyma, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk, Bratsk, Taipet...
On August 3, 1950 he was transferred to Sevvostoklag (Kolyma, North-East Siberia), where he worked in the gold-fields. On November 15, 1954 he was recorded in his personal file as having worked only 54 days, while there was a series of decrees casting him into the isolator for between three and ten days for refusing to work. On July 14, 1954 his sentenced was reduced by one-third. In December, 1954 he was transferred from Kolyma to the camp section Sovietskaya Gavan, Khabarovsk district. On May 29, 1956 he was transferred to a prison regime for one year, and was sent to prison in Blagoveschensk. On July 4, 1958 the follow report was written about him: “During his stay in prison he behaved satisfactorily, and did not violate the prison regime, was a cleaner in the corridors of the prison, and carried out his work. A religious fanatic, he did not work on days that were, in his opinion, festal.”
On April 11, he was transferred to the inner prison of the KGB in Kazan for investigation in connection with a church case. On July 18 he was indicted for being “the leader of the anti-Soviet underground of the True Orthodox Church in Tataria. By means of written and personal links with those who think like him, he gave instructions on preaching the ideas of the True Orthodox Church, called on people to refuse to participate in political enterprises and decline from service in the Soviet Army, in collective farms, in state institutions and undertakings. He gave instructions on preparing new secret priests, and on acquiring houses and equipment for an illegal church.” On August 11-14, 1958 he was sentenced to twenty-five years in the camps with five years disenfranchisement, and was sent to Dubravlag, Potma, Mordovia. “At eight in the morning they brought Vladyka Michael (Yershov) in a ‘black raven’… He raised his hand like this, crossed himself and bowed to the earth. ‘Pray and fear not. The victory will be with the True Orthodox Christians!’ Then they took him away. After him they brought in Basil Vladimirovich, and he also said: ‘All of you pray for us, pray. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Then they brought in Fr. Philaret, and after him Ivan, and the last was Nadezhda Vasilyevna. They brought them through, and they all shouted: ‘Pray! The victory will be with the True Orthodox Christians!’... They gave them twenty-five years’ strict regime.”
Fr. Michael spent fifteen years in irons. According to the accounts of prisoners, he spent whole nights standing in prayer. He healed many criminals, possessed, lame, blind and sick people, and gave them instructions on how to live well. He also had the gift of prophecy.
On August 13, 1973 he declared a hunger strike in the camp. In October he was transferred to the seventeenth section of the Temnikov camp (Potma). In the spring of 1974 they pulled out all his hair and all the hairs of his beard one by one with manacles, after which he was paralyzed. A.S. Dubina reported that he died in camp on June 4, 1977. According to another report, however, he died in a special prison hospital in Kazan on June 4, 1974.
However, his relatives heard that he had been transferred to the Kazan special psychiatric hospital. It seems that the secret was let out by the procurator of the town of Kazan when he was receiving his relatives. It is possible that the authorities wanted to hide him from the believing people because of his great popularity - he was known as "the Tsar of Mordovia" and people came to catch a glimpse of him through the barbed wire from all over the Soviet Union. Fr. Michael himself prophesied that they were going to hide him, and he ordered them not to believe the story of his death. All his spiritual children were convinced that he had been hidden away in a psychiatric hospital so as to be annihilated there.
It is said that in the 1950s Fr. Michael was secretly consecrated Bishop of Chistopol in the camps, and in this capacity took part, according to one source, in the Nikolsky Council of the Catacomb Church in 1961 through Monk John. However, the real existence of this Council is doubted by many.

HIEROMARTYR STEPHEN, BISHOP OF IZHEVSK (+ 1933)
and those with him

By Vladimir Moss

Bishop Stephen (in the world, Valerian Stepanovich Bekh) was born on September 13, 1872 in Zhitomir (according to another source, in the 1870s in Vologda province, and according to a third – in St. Petersburg) in a noble family. He graduated from the juridical faculty of St. Petersburg Imperial University in 1897. On November 8, 1897 he entered Moscow Theological Academy. A year later, when he was to be transferred to the second course, he was released from the Academy at his own request. On July 1, 1899 he was appointed zemstvo leader of the second district of the Yarensk uyezd, Vologda province. On August 15, 1900 he retired from the service, and on January 16, 1901 he was appointed teacher of the Law of God in church-parish schools. In September, 1903 he was again received into the number of the students of the second course at the Moscow Theological Academy.
"This is how Vladyka Stefan became a monk. The future Vladyka Stefan, then a young student, was walking along the street. He saw a big crowd in one entrance and asked:
"'What's going on?'
"'We're waiting for our dear Father John of Kronstadt.'
"A carriage came up. The crowd rushed up to it and pushed the young future bishop so powerfully that he felt towards Fr. John, who was just getting out. He looked at him attentively and went into the house. The crowd remained outside the house. The future bishop also remained, although he didn't know why. Suddenly an unknown person came out of the house and asked:
"'Is so-and-so here?' giving Vladyka Stefan's name in the world.
"'That's me,' said the amazed youth.
"'Batyushka is calling you.'
"His amazement increased. He followed the man who had been sent for him. Fr. John got up to meet him, calling him 'Vladyka'..."
On December 20, 1903 he was tonsured into monasticism. On November 5, 1906 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1907 he graduated from the Academy with the degree of candidate of theology. On October 11, 1908 he was appointed assistant supervisor of the Solikamsk theological school. From July 28, 1911 he was supervisor of the Mengrelia theological school with the rank of archimandrite. (According to another source, he was ordained to the priesthood and became an archimandrite in about 1919.) From October 8, 1913 he was supervisor of the Bezhetsk theological school. On October 8, 1914 he retired from service in the theological schools and was appointed protopresbyter in the Army and Navy clergy. From October 28, 1915 he was supervisor of the Kargopol theological school. From 1918 to 1920 he was an archimandrite of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1919 he was arrested in Petrograd, but soon released.
On September 26 / October 9, 1921 he was consecrated Bishop of Izhevsk, a vicariate of the Sarapul diocese. He is also mentioned by one source as having been temporary administrator of the Kirov (Vyatka) diocese. On November 9, 1922 he was arrested in Izhevsk and cast into Butyrki prison in Moscow. On December 27 he was sentenced to two (or three) years’ exile in Narymsk region for “counter-revolutionary activity”. At the beginning of 1924 (according to another source, on March 21, 1923) he was again arrested and put in the Taganka prison in Moscow. From there he appealed to E.A. Peshkova of the Political Red Cross to give him a sheepskin coat since “the frosts in Narymsk are savage”. On March 26 he wrote again to Peshkova thanking her and congratulating her on the feast of Holy Pascha. He was sentenced to two years in the camps and sent to Solovki.
In August, 1926 he was released, but encountered problems in Izhevsk, where Bishop Alexis (Kuznetsov) of Sarapul objected to Metropolitan Sergius’ decision to re-open the Izhevsk diocese and succeeded in making Metropolitan Sergius reverse his decision. Although a part of the clergy and laity in Izhevsk did not want to submit to Bishop Alexis, suspecting him because of his temporary fall into renovationism, Bishop Stefan found it difficult to serve in the circumstances and in the autumn of 1926 went into retirement in Petrograd. There he served in the church of St. Alexis the Man of God and, from September 21, 1927, in the church of the Transfiguration.
Elder Sampson (von Sievers) recounted the following incident when he was serving with Bishop Stephen sometime before 1925: "Vladyka Stephen was celebrating the Liturgy in the Krestovoy church in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. I was a hierodeacon. I brought out the Chalice. Vladyka read: 'I believe, O Lord, and I confess', lifted the veil and went pale - it was Human Flesh in Blood! Then he turned to me: 'Look, Father!' What was he to do? He turned and went through the left door while I went with the Chalice through the right door into the altar, and began to pray that the Lord would be merciful: how were we to distribute Human Flesh? Who would take it?... He prayed for about fifteen minutes with arms raised. Then he looked - and again it had taken the form of bread. Then he went out and communicated the people. This incident was known by Metropolitan Gurias, the priest-martyr Lev, who perished in the mines in Karaganda, and, it seems, by monk-martyr Barsanuphius, my favourite..."
Protopriest Fr. Basil Bondyrev, who had been with Vladyka Stephen during his first exile and was later shot, told the following story: "A huge bear lumbered up to us while we were preparing timber. He filled all of us with terror. At that time Vladykya Stephen and I and the other exiles were going to cut timber. Once we were working when we suddenly heard someone crashing through the grove. A bear! We all ran off in different directions. I, too, hid. Then I looked out and saw Vladyka Stephen standing where he was and the bear stretched out at his feet. Vladyka was feeding him with some bread and stroking him. And from that time the bear became completely tame; he would come up and lie down beside Vladyka, who would feed him."
Bishop Stephen enjoyed great authority among the believing people. He was considered to be a clairovoyant elder. He had the courage to tell people exactly what he thought of them.
He was in opposition to both the renovationists and the sergianists, and was the spiritual father of the first bishop who came out openly against Metropolitan Sergius' declaration - Hieromartyr Victor of Glazov. At the beginning of 1928 he was banned from serving by Sergius. According to one (dubious) source, he participated in the “Nomadic Council” of the Catacomb Church in 1928 through Monk Obadiah.
He served in various churches in Petrograd. Natalia Georgievna Kiter tells the following story about him:-
"Mama and I arrived in Petersburg in 1930, after a ten-year absence. Mama was a pensioner (she had been a teacher for many years), and received a pension, I don't remember exactly, of either 12 or 18 roubles a month. She went out one dark and frosty morning and returned only late in the evening, half-dead from tiredness. She hadn't eaten a thing all day.
"'The doctor discovered that I have cancer and has ordered me to have an operation immediately,' she said, dropping exhausted onto the bed.
"My heart trembled, but I tried to say with complete calm:
"'We shall go tomorrow. If one catches it early, it's not dangerous.'
"I spoke confidently in this vein. Mama was calm. I managed to get her into the hospital without any particular difficulty. In the evening I was visited by my neighbour, a very believing and intelligent old woman, Vera Alexandrovna Arbuzova, who lived with her daughter, Musya, a nurse.
"At this time I had no idea of true spiritual life, and only recently, 'to spite the Bolsheviks', I had begun to go to church. My soul had been searching for something for a long time, life seemed pointless. At the age of 18 I had suddenly been attacked by a terrible thought which deprived me of the strength to live. What was the point of working, of studying, of seeking, of hoping for anything, if everything ended in death? At this point my path crossed with that of the theosophists, and their teaching seemed to me, who did not know the truth, to be a revelation. I must add that from the age of 9 I had grown up without the beneficial influence of my deeply and sincerely believing parents. When the persecutions against the Church began, I, out of a confused feeling of protest, began to go to church. There I found rest to my soul, although I had no idea about the true life of the spirit. But the church was the only place where I felt in Russia, where the present disappeared without a trace.
"And now Vera Alexandrovna tried to direct me along the right path. But I didn't give in to her, relying self-confidently on my experience alone.
"'You know, Nata,' she turned to me. 'I want to suggest that you ask Vladyka Stephen. Remember, I told you about him, that he could pray for your mama. Let's go to Pesochnaya tomorrow, to the church where he is.'
"I put no particular hope on the prayers of an unknown bishop, but you clutch onto anything when grief comes.
"The next morning the three of us set off for the Liturgy. During the service I noticed, not far away, among the worshippers, an old, thin monk in a tattered old ryasa. His pale face looked ascetic, and there were straggly strands of grey hair sticking out from under his old skufya. Something drew me to look in his direction.
"After the service Vera Alexandrovna said to me, pointing at the elder:
"'That's Vladyka.'
"The people began to crowd up to him, asking for his blessing. A long queue was formed. We got up. Never before had I kissed the hands of a priest, and I immediately noticed that most people not only kissed Vladyka's hand, but also bowed to the ground before him. I was upset. All this seemed strange and barbarian to me. I was perplexed. How could this be?
"But while I was hesitating, I suddenly saw myself already standing in front of Vladyka. I raised my eyes to him and met his glance. What happened to me then! His glance penetrated into the very depths of my soul and immediately enlightened it, like a flash of lightning. I immediately saw its blackness and all his holiness. Suddenly I felt holiness. This was a new and unusual feeling for me, and I was struck, as if hit by something. Weeping, I fell at his feet and couldn't regain my calm. And to his sympathetic question I could only mutter:
"'Vladyka, pray for mama.'
"'And what is her illness?'
"I told him. He knitted his brow and shook his head.
"'Alright, but you also pray.'
"'I can't, Vladyka.'
"'Pray as you are able. We shall pray together.'
"I returned home somewhat calmer. The operation was appointed for the morning, just at the time of the Liturgy. I rushed straight from the church to the hospital. Would she be alive? In fear and anxiety I went into the ward. From a cot in the distance mama nodded to me, smiling. She was weak, but in full consciousness and kind as always. Musya Abramova told me that the doctor had warned her, since she was a nurse, that he feared that the sick woman would die under the knife... The last words that mama heard were the word of the professor:
"'We must be quick here.'
"But the operation not only went well, there was not even any of the festering from which so many sick people die, and her temperature did not even go up. Mama was released from hospital two weeks later. The stitches healed as if after a shallow cut in a young and healthy person.
"'I don't understand a thing,' said the professor, spreading his hands. It couldn't end like that. The sick said that they were struck how calmly and happily mama went to the serious operation, as if she were going on a walk.
"Mama's first outing was to the church on Pesochnaya. After the service Vladyka had a long, tender conversation with us. He joked, and tried to encourage us. We both wept. We quietly left the church. Vladyka caught up with us; he greeted us, smiling radiantly. His tall figure could be seen for a long time at the end of the alley.
"We didn't see him again. Shortly after this they arrested and exiled him. The accusation was: 'Opium for the people'. And - evidently through the prayers of Vladyka Stephen - mama was given two more years so as to receive a crown to her life so full of harsh suffering - an angelic, monastic crown [with the name Eugenia]....
"Vera Alexandrovna told me how Margarita Jul. Mei had seen mama in a dream on the very day of her death lying in the grave. Beside her stood an unknown elder-monk who was praying fervently. Vera Alexandrovna had had the thought of showing her the photograph of Vladyka Stephen.
"'That's him! That's him!' shouted Margarita Jul., although she had never once seen Vladyka Stephen in the flesh.
"They say that during the fast Vladyka ate nothing except one prosphora a day with holy water.
"'Receive Communion while there is the Chalice,' were his constant words.
"Vera Alexandrovna told the following stories from her life:
"1. Once we were standing in the church. Vladyka Stephen was at the other end blessing the people. I also went up. But Musya said:
"'Wait, let him finish blessing all the women first.'
"Finally we went up. Vladyka smiled and said to us:
'I've finished blessing all the women, now I can bless you, too.'
"Vladyka could not possibly have heard the words that were said in a whisper at the other end of the church. Musya was ready to fall through the earth out of shame! What clairvoyance from the Lord!
"2. There was a lady staying with us, not a church person. Once she said:
"'You keep saying about your bishop that whatever he prays for he receives. I shall go to him. Let him pray that so-and-so gives up his wife and marries me.'
"'Well, you know, I wouldn't advise you to go with such requests to Vladyka.'
"She went. She went ahead of us to receive his blessing. She had hardly opened her mouth when the tenderly smiling face of Vladyka suddenly darkened, he frowned and, without saying a word, turned away from her, and turned to the next person. The lady was very upset both with us and with Vladyka.”
Natalya Kieter continued her reminiscences: "A year passed. I had a dream. A door opened quickly and Vladyka Stephen entered in a fur coat. I had never seen him dressed like that, and he said:
"'I remember, Natalya, I remember.'
"That was all. I woke up. Immediately the news came of his death in exile..."
Vladyka Stefan was arrested in Petrograd in 1929, and was sentenced in accordance with article 58-10 to three years’ exile in the village of Pomozdino, Ust-Kulomsky region, Komi ASSR. On September 7, 1932 he was arrested in the village of Bad-Yel, Ust-Kulomsky region, and was cast into prison in Syktyvkar. On April 21, 1933 he was sentenced to be shot in accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11 for creating a counter-revolutionary monarchist church organization, ‘The Union of Peasants’, and leading this organization”. This was part of the group case, “The Case of the Church Counter-Revolutionary Organization, ‘The Union of Peasants’, Komi, 1933”. The sentence was changed to ten years in prison. However, before the sentence could be passed, Bishop Stephen died in prison on March 26 (or, according to another source, April 13/26), 1933.
The following were condemned together with Bishop Stephen in this case:
Priest Basil Andreyevich Ponomarev. He was born in 1869 in the village of Muzhichok, Khotinsky region, Belorussia. He went to Polotsk pedagogical seminary, and began to serve as a priest in Belorussia. In 1929 he was arrested and sentenced in accordance with article 58-10 to three years in exile, which he spent in the village of Kerchemya, Ust-Kulomsky region, Komi. On September 15, 1932 he was arrested while in exile, was cast into prison in Syktyvkar, and on April 16, 1933 was condemned for “participation in the counter-revolutionary church organization, ‘The Union of Peasants’, headed by Bishop Stefan (Bekh)”. In accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11, he was sentenced to three years’ exile in the north. Nothing more is known about him.
Priest Vladimir Fyodorovich Bachinsky. He was born in 1870 in the village of Bereznyaki, Kiev province. He went to the Kiev theological seminary and then served in the village of Moshny, Kiev province. In 1928 he went into retirement. In 1930 he was arrested in Moshny and sentenced to three years’ exile in accordance with article 58-10. He was exiled to the village of Pomozdino, Komi, where, on September 15, 1932, he was arrested again and cast in to Syktyvkar prison. On April 27, 1933 he was condemned and was sentenced in accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11, but on October 30, 1933 died in prison.
Priest Alexander Afanasyevich Tsitovich. He was born in 1872 in the village of Berezki, Khotinsky region, Belorussia, and went to a theological school. He served as a reader in Belorussia. In 1927 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1929 he was arrested, and sentenced to three years’ exile in the village of Vilgort, Ust-Kulomsky region, in accordance with article 58-10. On September 15, 1932 he was arrested again and cast in to Syktyvkar prison. On April 27, 1933 he was condemned and sentenced in accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11 to three years’ exile in the north. Nothing more is known about him.
Nun Ierusalima, in the world Catherine Nikitichna Kasif, was born in 1880 in the village of Verknyaya Belozerka, Melitopol province, Ukraine. She went to a church-parish school, and then entered the St. Joseph monastery, serving as treasurer. In 1930 she was arrested and sentenced to three years’ exile in the north in accordance with article 54-10. She was sent to the village of Bad-Yel, Ust-Kulom region, Komi, where, on September 15, 1932, she was arrested again and cast into prison in Syktyvkar. On April 27, 1933 she was convicted and sentenced in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11, but was released in view of the time she had already spent in prison. Nothing more is known about her.
Reader Sergius Konstantinovich Popov. He was born in 1878 in the village of Barzhenka, Veliky Ustyug uyezd, Vologda province. He finished three classes at Veliky Ustyug theological school. He went to serve in the Sinegorskaya church, Veliky Ustyug uyezd. During the First World War he served in the army. In 1929 he was arrested, cast into the prison in the village of Kyrnysha, Ust-Kulomsky region, Komi ASSR, and condemned to three years’ exile in accordance with article 58-10. On September 15, 1932 he was arrested while in exile and cast into prison in Syktyvkar. On April 16, 1933 he was convicted in accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11 and was sentenced to three years’ exile in the north. Nothing more is known about him.
Reader Alexander Alexandrovich Tikhomirov. He was born in 1871 in the village of Blagoveschenskoye, Vologda province into the family of a sacristan. He became a reader in Vologda province, but from 1925 to 1930 did not serve in church, but worked on the land. In 1930 he was arrested in his native village and sentenced to three years’ exile in accordance with article 58-10. He was exiled to the village of Kuzminki, Ust-Kulomsky region, Komi ASSR. On September 15, 1932 he was arrested in exile and cast into prison in Syktyvkar. On April 16, 1933 he was convicted in accordance with articles 58-10 part 2 and 58-11 and was sentenced to three years’ exile in the north. Nothing more is known about him.

(Sources: Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky), Die Russischen Orthodoxen Bischofe von 1893-1965, Erlangen, 1989, vol. VI, pp. 237-238; "Episkop Stefan", Russkij Palomnik, N 5, 1992; M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyateishago Patriarkha Tikhona, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1994, p. 993; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Istoki i Svyazi Katakombnoj Tserkvi v Leningrade i obl. (1922-92 gg.)"; “Episkopat Istinno-Pravoslavnoj Katakombnoj Tserkvi 1922-1997gg.”, Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 4(8), 1997, p. 4; Lev Regelson, Tragediya Russkoj Tserkvi, 1917-1945, Moscow: Krutitskoye patriarsheye podvorye, 1996, p. 536; Victor Antonov, “Svyashchenomuchenik Mitropolit Iosif v Petrograde”, Vozvrashcheniye, N 4, 1993, pp. 46-52; Michael Shkarovsky, “Iosiflyanskoye Dvizheniye i Oppozitsiya v SSSR (1927-1943)”, Minuvsheye, 15, 1994, pp. 446-463; I.I. Osipova, “Skvoz’ Ogn’ Muchenij i Vody Slyoz”, Moscow: Serebryanniye Niti, 1998, p. 253 ; M.V. Shkarovsky, Iosiflyanstvo, St. Petersburg, 1999, p. 298 ; http://www.pstbi.ru/ bin/code. exe /frames/m/ind_oem.html?/ans; L.E. Sikorskaya, Vyatksij Ispovednik: Svyatitel’ Viktor (Ostrovidov), Moscow, 2010, p. 149 ; http://www.histor-ipt-kt.org/KNIGA/len.html)

HIEROCONFESSOR ALEXANDER OF OMSK, SIBERIA (+ 1977)

By Vladimir Moss

The Priest of the Orthodox Tikhonite Church, Hieromonk Alexander, in the world Athanasius Vasilyevich Orlov, was born in 1878 (according to another source, 1876) in Vologda province in the family of Protopriest Basil, who served in one parish for 50 years. His mother, who was called Olga, was a deeply believing Christian. There were six brothers and one sister in the family. All the brothers and the brother-in-law were Priests. Fr. Alexander was the youngest in the family. The Lord placed the mark of His grace on the younger son of this noble spiritual family from his youngest years – Athanasius refused to eat meat from the age of five.
He went to study in a Theological Seminary. Now atheism was widespread among schoolchildren in those years, and Athanasius fell into its nets. But this was not hidden from his mother. On her deathbed – she died at the age of 56 – she told him: “Leave your atheist comrades, change your character and God will not abandon you.’
The death of Athanasius’ mother had been exactly prophesied by a fool-for-Christ, which made a strong impression on him, the more so in that a good provincial doctor had said that she would recover.
After the death of his mother Athanasius began to become interested in theology, the philosophical approach to religion, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and life after death. But he was burdened by the fact that he had been so attracted to atheist ideas, and he was constantly pursued by the thought: “You will not be forgiven”. The thought gnawed at his brain: “If you wish to receive forgiveness, offer yourself as a sacrifice to God”.
In despair he decided to commit suicide. His nearest relatives did not let him out of their sight, but followed him day and night. Many Priests tried to convince Athanasius to abandon his plan, but without success. He took a raw thong from a harness, put his head into a noose and stepped off the stool. But just at that moment a fiery streak of lightning flashed before his eyes, and for the rest of his life he remembered the voice which he heard: “Now you are mine. There is no repentance in the grave.” And then he heard the powerful laugh of the devil.
At that moment he repented and came to on the floor – the end of the raw thong was swaying on the ceiling, and noose hung round his neck. One hearing the noise his relatives ran up. His godfather, who was a Priest, confessed him and gave him Holy Communion. He sincerely repented and the thought of suicide never entered his mind again. Another Priest, a friend of his father’s, said to him: “Athanasius, Satan told you the truth – there is no repentance in the grave. But you are not yet in the grave, and you can still repent.”
Athanasius imposed a strict fast upon himself and intensified his prayer. He graduated from the Seminary and took up a three-year practical as a Psalm-Reader in a small parish where there were few services – only every Sunday. Since he was knowledgeable in medicine (according to one source, he had both a medical and a University training), he worked to counter epidemics of typhus and dysentery.
In 1915, during the First World War, he went to the front as a volunteer, serving as a regimental Priest. With a cross in his hand, he would go in front of the soldiers into battle for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. His fearlessness, untiring service and flaming faith attracted the soldiers.
At the defence of Yakibstadt bridgehead, Fr. Alexander did not allow the sappers to blow up the bridge until all the soldiers and the numerous wounded had been transported across from the German side of the river, for the water was cold and swift-flowing. The soldiers then met and decreed that Fr. Alexander should be given the Cross of St. George.
He was three years at the front, and fell into captivity for three months, but managed to escape. He did not go home, but returned to the front. He went into the trenches with his cross and words of encouragement. He also gave sermons. For his faithful service he was awarded with a gramota and Golden Cross by Tsar Nicholas II. He was to receive this personally from the Tsar, but the arrest of the Tsar in 1917 prevented this.
After the Revolution Fr. Alexander received no salary. However, the older soldiers tired to persuade him not to leave. And he remained until the front was liquidated, saying: “Dear ones, it’s a shame to break one’s oath”.
In 1918 he returned from the front and took up a position in Gribtsevo, Vologda province. His parish consisted of widely scattered villages and a church near a river. There was a bell-tower with one bell weighing 450 pounds, a second – 150, and a third – 80. There were always many parishioners in church. On the eve of Sundays and feasts, Fr. Alexander introduced all-night vigils, which were followed by choir rehearsals with everyone chanting. He also introduced discussions outside the services: explanations of the Creed, the Commandments and the Law of God, Church history, explanations of prayers and answers to parishioners’ questions.
Fr. Alexander used to reminisce about this period: “I felt myself t be an irredeemable debtor before the Lord for my previous sins, lack of faith and the sins of my youth, and full of gratitude to the Lord for His mercy towards me in the war and in captivity. I was young, my voice was strong, I did not tire easily. I often had to speak on the subject of atheism, and to discuss the reality of the personality of Jesus Christ. I considered it my duty to acquaint my parishioners with the great scientists who had believed in God”.
At this time the Law of God was forbidden in schools, so Fr. Alexander tried to speak more about God. This did not please the atheists. In the provincial newspaper they began to slander him. It became still more difficult for Fr. Alexander to serve in his parish. The authorities sought the slightest excuse to arrest him, they imposed insupportable taxes on him and forbade him to preach.
Once a group of agitators came to the village soviet and posted a notice ordering the villagers to appear at a debate. The old rector refused to speak at the debate, but Fr. Alexander decided to speak. He used what he himself had read and what he had heard in a debate in 1921 between Vvedensky and Lunacharsky against the atheists. The agitators could produce nothing in reply, and the senior member of the collective began to shout: “Arrest him”.
“Everything you have is based on might, not on right,” said Fr. Alexander fervently, “and not on facts or logic. A bear has got still greater might – he can beat up whomever he wants.”
Fr. Alexander went home and the peasants dispersed. Two weeks later, they arrested him while he was paying a visit with his wife. He was brought to the village soviet under the guard of a policeman. This was on Cheesefare Saturday, and there were many people in the street. The people gathered at the village soviet and began to demand the release of the Priest. The president of the soviet summoned a detachment of red-army soldiers.
“The Priest has stirred up the whole district in rebellion,” he said.
The bell for the all-night vigil was sounding, and some of the people went into the church. It became quieter on the street. They said that Fr. Alexander would be taken out the next day. However, during the service they took him out of the village, and then forced him to go the whole way by foot. Snow was falling heavily, the convoy were traveling on wooden sledges while he walked behind them for 50 km along the snowy road. The soldiers whipped the horse, and forced him to run. Later it turned out that they had been given the order to shoot him while he was supposedly trying to run away.
First he was put into a common cell in Kandakovsk Prison. The investigators interrogated him, often using the butts of their rifles and constantly coming back to the same accusation: “He went round the parishes and villages conducting discus-sions”. But this was not true – he gave sermons only in the church. The investigator demanded that he confess, and that would be the end of the matter. But this would have meant that they could drag off any villager who let him conduct a discussion in his house.
Fr. Alexander exposed their coarseness and refused to give any evidence before the drunken investigator. They sent him to the GPU in the provincial capital of Vologda, and there to a revolutionary tribunal. The interrogators began again, with yet more accusations – there were now 18 points in all. The president of the revolutionary tribunal accused him of mocking the soldiers in the war. In rebuttal of this accusation, Fr. Alexander produced his Cross of St. George. Then they accused him of conducting anti-semitic propaganda against the Jews. But Fr. Alexander had not a single Jew in his parish. And at the front he had even defended the Jews, for which they had given him a present, a sacred book in Russian and Hebrew with a silver plaque and the inscription: “To the highly respected Priest of the 237th Graiboronsky regiment, from the Jews of this regiment”. They asked to see the book, and it served as a proof of the truthfulness of Fr. Alexander’s evidence.
Throughout the Great Lent until Palm Sunday Fr. Alexander was constantly being brought under armed guard from his solitary cell for interrogations in various parts of the city. He was not allowed parcels from home. However, the day after seeing the procurator he was given back his clothes and documents and allowed to return to his parish. He served the services of Holy Week and met the Day of Resur-rection with joy.
“That Pascha was especially joyful,” he said, “for my family, for me and for the parishioners. Their petitions, even as far as the centre, had been crowned with success. By the mercy of God, I, too, was resurrected!”
The people loved Fr. Alexander, who was now a mitred Protopriest, and stood up for him through thick and thin in his conflicts with the authorities, who watched his every step. The MVD boss declared openly that he wanted to get him. And they began to threaten him with prison and execution for his fierce sermons against atheism. In 1930 he was arrested and spent three years in prison.
Fr. Alexander sought an answer to his dilemma in the Gospel. He found it in Luke 14.26-27: “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple”. These few words made his decision clear and firm – to leave his family, because he was not allowed to serve honourably as a Priest under Soviet power and his conscience did not allow him to become a traitor.
In 1935 he left his family, his wife and four children – his youngest son Nicholas was only six years old. He went to the river, and left a note on the bank which said: “It is impossible to live like this”. Then he left his clothes there (so that they should not look for him in the surrounding villages), signed himself with the sign of the cross and left his native land. He took up employment as a shepherd, and in the winter was a sexton in the church of the Holy Spirit.
As a shepherd he wore old peasant clothes and was distinguished from the others by his meekness, humility, eagerness to please and kindness. It was clear from his face that he was not who he said he was. The villagers noticed this, and to test him gave him sour food to eat – but he was satisfied with everything.
In the Church he did not go up close to the kliros in case he forgot himself and began to chant. Once, however, in Staraya Russa, he couldn’t help it – he began to chant. This gave him away completely. Once he was asked to baptize a child, he couldn’t refuse. There were rumours that this was not a simple peasant but someone who was hiding from Soviet power.
The time had come to leave the area. And so, thanking God, Who had enlightened him through the Holy Gospel and Who had made it easier for him to bear the burden of leaving his family, he went to the railway station and got on a train taking him eastwards. This was in 1941.
He came out in Omsk in Siberia. Having neither money nor even a crust of bread, and not knowing anybody, he began to beg for alms, first by the viaduct, and then in the Nikolskaya Church. But nobody gave him anything. Fr. Alexander prayed to God and thanked Him for sending him this trial for the purification of his former sins.
He came out of the Church and saw an elderly woman with a heavy suitcase. He offered to help her. This woman turned out to be a believer, and she gave him something to eat. He told her that he was a Priest, but did not recognize the Sergianist “Church”. Gradually a parish was formed around him.
At first only a few individuals came, then it was tens of people. Finally, such a large Catacomb community was formed, that it was difficult to find a place where they could all fit in for the festal services, and admission had to be limited. The community included nuns who had been driven out of their destroyed monasteries. The nuns and believing old women collected books and vestments and Church utensils. Then people were found who sewed gonfalons, and former monastery artists who painted Icons. Then there appeared readers and chanters. People learned how to make candles, to bake prosphoras and boil incense.
People invited Fr. Alexander to their homes, and he went from house to house. Children were baptized, people repented of their sins and received the Holy Mysteries, burials and pannikhidas for the reposed were carried out. All this was done at great risk both for Fr. Alexander and for the parishioners, but God preserved and strengthened them.
On great feasts as many as 100 people gathered. The service was long, It began with an all-night vigil in the evening and finished at 4 in the morning, lasting twelve hours. The daily services began at about 3 or 4 o’clock and continued until late in the evening. During the proskomedia Fr. Alexander took out a particle for each believer. He spent a long time on confessions and sermons, which caused some of the old women to complain, but he was adamant. In his sermons, which made a great impression on many, Batyushka especially concentrated on the refutation of atheist propaganda about the existence of God, and pointed out how many of the great scientists believed in God.
Fr. Alexander had a special veneration for the Mother of God. With what emotion and love he read Akathists and molebens to Her, and recounted the miracu-lous healings wrought through her Icons in Holy Russia! He also knew the Lives of the Saints very well, and would often bring up examples from their lives to illustrate a point.
At the end of the 1940s he became a monk with the name Alexander in the city of Ufa, Siberia.
During the 1950s, when atheists were being introduced into the seminaries, Fr. Alexander would warn about these “wolves in sheep’s clothing”.
Twice Batyushka was picked up off the streets of Omsk, because of the unusual nobility of his bearing and brought to the police station. But with the help of God he was released. Once, while he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy, at the moment of consecration of the Holy Gifts the Police came in. Fr. Alexander took the chalice with the Holy Gifts and stood up against the wall, covering himself with a tablecloth. The Police did not notice him! By the Providence of God and the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, Fr. Alexander and his flock were often saved from the torture-chambers of the KGB.
The servant of God Anna remembers how she was healed by him. She went to Fr. Alexander on Sundays and feastdays seeking healing from her illness. Most of the time she seemed a normal person, but when they began to chant the Cherubic Hymn she suddenly became anxious and began to shout in an inhuman voice! They had to drag her up to receive Communion. In 1952, at the request of her relatives, Fr. Alexander read prayers over the sick woman, and the demon was driven out of her. Since then Anna has become a normal Christian who regularly, in peace and with the fear of God, receives the Holy Mysteries and lives a Christian life.
In the middle of the 1960s a chance arrival at one of the services turned out to be a former parishioner of Fr. Alexander’s in the Church where he served before he left his family. He recognized him, as he did her. After she had told him about his family he decided to visit them.
They were convinced that he had drowned in the river. After he had told them what happened, they told him that his daughter Olga was working for the KGB. His wife just wept. But his daughter said to him: “Father! I give you my room. I will hang it with Icons. You pray in it as much as you want, but stay with the family!”
Fr. Alexander replied: “My daughter, I’ll do everything you suggest, but only on condition that you leave your work for the KGB”.
His daughter replied that she could not do that. Then Fr. Alexander said: “Well then, my daughter, you cannot leave your work at the KGB, and I cannot leave my service to God and the people who have been entrusted to me. My life belongs to the Church of Christ.”
At this they parted. Fr. Alexander and his novice Maria left for Omsk, not suspecting that at the order of his daughter he had been placed under constant surveil-lance.
By the will of God, however, Fr. Alexander did not fall into the hands of the KGB. His novice went through all the interrogations without giving away anything about Batyushka or his address. However, this information was supplied by Maria’s landlady.
So the Church services stopped, and Maria was forced to go to her parents in Semipalatinsk, while for Fr. Alexander there began a life full of alarms and perse-cutions. In order not to expose his Omsk parishioners to danger, he went only where he was invited. By the Providence of God, faithful Christians offered him refuge in many towns, especially Tavda, Vyatka, Ufa, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk and Novy Afon.
Once, when he was traveling by boat to Semipalatinsk, he sat down at the piano and began to play : “God, save the Tsar”. A detective who was travelling on the boat then told him that he would be arrested on disembarking. But it turned out that the detective got drunk, fell asleep and set fire to his mattress in the cabin. Meanw-hile, Fr. Alexander had disembarked and escaped.
Once on arriving in Omsk he said: “My daughter has betrayed me.” People came to visit him more rarely because many, and especially young people, were being summoned to interrogations. There they always demanded answers to the same questions – about Fr. Alexander. And they were asked to work as stooges for the KGB.
In 1969, eight years before his death, his sight began to fail. Then he became completely blind and fell ill. But his hearing was good to the end. He knew the simple services by heart, but he needed to be prompted when it came to the festal exclama-tions. He celebrated the Liturgy only in the presence of his spiritual father, Hiero-monk Anthony, who had been a cleric of Schema-Bishop Peter (Ladygin) and had spent many years in prison. Fr. Anthony would often go to Omsk to fulfil the needs of the Christians of that city. Fr. Alexander spent most of his time with him in Tavda, until his death there in 1973. Then Fr. Alexander returned to Omsk.
In one of his last letters which have not been destroyed, Fr. Alexander wrote:
“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
I appeal to you with a last humble request before my death: receive as a prayerful memento of the sinful Hieromonk Alexander a humble gift which will nevertheless be very useful for all believers: the five prayers of the Hierarch Deme-trius of Rostov.
I ask forgiveness of all if I have offended anyone in anything because of my feeble mind, lack of foresight, pettiness, insufficient self-control or, most important, lack of the fear of God – the beginning of spiritual wisdom.
I beseech you all who believe in the Lord God to raise your fraternal Christian prayer that the Lord send me a Christian end and count me worthy of a good answer before the Terrible Judgement Seat of Christ. May the Lord reward you with temporary and eternal blessings.
My path is life is ending with the words of St. John Chrysostom and the Hierarch Nicholas, my favourite Hierarchs – Glory to God for all things!”
Before his death he said: “I have much to say, but I can’t”.
And before his death he forbade anyone to make any inscription over his grave, saying: “I lived in secret and must lie in secret”.
Twenty-four hours before his death, he began to breathe with difficulty. In the neighbouring room they read the prayers for the departure of the soul from the body. On the morning of his death they had already read the prayers for him although he had not heard them. As he was dying they were reading the Akathist to the Holy Great-Martyr Barbara.
He died at the age of 99 in the city of Omsk (according to another source, Tomsk) in the family of a pious widow, on August 29, 1977 at six o’clock in the evening. He was buried in Omsk in the north-eastern cemetery.
The radiant memory of this wonderful man and pastor and fierce denouncer of the atheist Bolshevik power lives on in the hearts of his parishioners who are alive. The path to his grave is not overgrown. When the parishioners meet, the conversation always turns to Fr. Alexander, and the prayers of those who pray to him at his grave are always answered.

Holy Hieroconfessor Alexander, pray to God for us!

Sources:
“Zhiznennij put’ Ieromonakha Aleksandra (Orlova) v Omskoj obschine Katakombnoj Pravoslavnoj Tserkvi”, Tserkovnaia Zhizn’, NN 1-2, January-April, 1994, pp. 41-57;

“Ustnie vopominania raby Bozhiej N.I. Pashko o katakombnom dukhovenstve”, Pravoslavnaia Zhizn’, 52, N 11 (634), November, 2002, pp. 28-30.