New Martyrs (entry)

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
NEW MARTYRS, representatives of the Orthodox clergy and laity, who died for their faith after the revolution. The title of the Protomartyr of St. Petersburg Eparchy was given to Archpriest Ioann Kochurov, Prior of St. Catherine's Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo, killed on 31 October (13 November), 1917. Archbishop Peter Skipetrov was wounded and died soon afterwards when the Red Guards attempted to seize Alexander Nevsky Lavra on 20 January (2 February), 1918. In September – October 1918, archpriests Alexy Stavrovsky (Prior of Admiralty Cathedral), Filosof Ornatsky (Prior of Kazan Cathedral) and his sons, and Alexandr Vasilyev (confessor of the Royal family, whose members were also glorified among the New Martyrs of St. Petersburg) were killed as hostages. Platon (Kulbush), Bishop and former prior of St. Isidor Church, was tortured to death in Tartu in 1919; the same fate befell theologian and Archpriest Konstantin Ageev in the Crimea in 1920. After a show trial in August 1922, Metropolitan Veniamin and Archimandrite Sergius (Shein) were put to death together with professor Y.P. Novitsky and lawyer I.M. Kovsharov (in 1992 they were canonized by the Russian Orthodox church). In 1930 Archpriest Sergy Tikhomirov and priest Nikolay Prozorov were executed by a firing squad in connection with the case of the “Josephites". The same sentence awaited archpriest Mikhail Cheltsov and priest Mikhail Nikolaevsky in the case of Countess E.K. Zarnekau and spiritual writer E.N. Poselyanin in the so-called case of the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral. Bishop Stephen (Bekh) and historian and professor A.I. Brilliantov died in prisoners' camps in 1933. In 1935, they were followed by Archbishop Demetrius (Lyubimov). Clergymen of churches closed by the government were exiled from St. Petersburg and were often subjected to repressions in the provinces. Over 300 monks and nuns were deported in February 1932. During the period of Great Terror of 1937-38 Metropolitans Serafim (Chichagov) and Iosif (Petrovykh), Archbishops Grigory (Voevodin), Venedict (Plotnikov) and Innokenty (Tikhonov), Bishops Grigory (Lebedev), Sergius (Druzhinin) and Vasily (Dokhturov) were executed along with scores of clergymen and laymen. During the siege of 1941-44 Archimandrite Konstantin (Savitsky) and nun Evdokia (Deshkina), members of the Catacomb Church, were also shot by the firing squad. After the Great Patriotic War the authorities subjected to repressions the clergy of the so-called Pskov Mission, which functioned on the territory occupied by the Nazi forces. Some of New Martyrs have been canonized and listed among the Assembly of Saints of St. Petersburg Eparchy. Several New Martyrs were buried at Levashovskaya Pustosh (a mass burial site of the victims of executions and repressions), but the exact whereabouts of the majority of graves is unknown.

References: Синодик гонимых, умученных, в узах невинно пострадавших православных священно-церковнослужителей и мирян Санкт-Петербургской епархии, XX столетие. 2-е изд., доп. СПб., 2002.

V. V. Antonov. Ageev Konstantin Markovich, Archpriest
Alexy Stavrovsky, Archpriest
Brilliantov Alexander Ivanovich
Cheltsov Mikhail Pavlovich, Protopresbyter
Dimitry (Dmitry Gavrilovich Lyubimov), Archbishop
Evdokia (Deshkina)
Gavriil (Voevodin), Archbishop
Grigory (Alexander Alexeevich Lebedev), Bishop
Innokenty (Boris Dmitrievich Tikhonov), Archbishop
Ioann Kochurov, Archpriest
Iosif (Petrovyh)
Konstantin (Savitsky)
Kovsharov I.M.
Nikolaevsky Mikhail Vasilievich
Novitsky Yury Petrovich
Ornatsky Filosof Nikolaevich, Protopresbyter
Platon (Kulbush Pavel Petrovich), Bishop
Poselyanin (real name Pogozhev) Evgeny Nikolaevich
Prozorov Nikolay Fedorovich
Serafim (Chichagov), Metropolitan
Sergy (Druzhinin), Bishop
Sergy (Shein), Archimadrite
Stefan (Valery Stepanovich Bekh), Bishop
Tikhomirov Sergy Andreevich, Archpriest
Vasily (Dokhturov), Bishop
Vasilyev Alexander Petrovich
Venedikt (Plotnikov Viktor Vasilievich), Archbishop
Veniamin (Vasily Pavlovich Kazansky), Metropolitan
Zarnekau Ekaterina Konstantinovna, Countess
Zarnekau Ekaterina Konstantinovna, Countess
Синодик гонимых, умученных, в узах невинно пострадавших православных священно-церковнослужителей и мирян Санкт-Петербургской епархии, XX столетие. 2-е изд., доп. СПб., 2002 St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo
Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Kazan Cathedral
"Great Terror"
Siege of 1941-44
1932