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Martyrs and Confessors of the Soviet Yoke
Martyric Heroism Beyond All Proportions Among the locally venerated New Martyrs is Archbishop Joachim of Nizhni-Novhorod who, in 1920, was nailed by the hands and feet on a cross by the Bolsheviks in Sevastopil, in front of the Royal Doors, like St Peter, upside down. In a recent report into the torture and execution of the New Martyrs of Eastern Europe, the Russian investigator presenting his findings in Moscow said that he found many instances of crucifixion of Orthodox priests and bishops on the Royal Doors of the Iconostases of their Churches, as well as other hideous tortures. But, for him, the worst was the spraying of naked Orthodox Christians with water and then leaving them out on icy lakes in winter to freeze to death. Thus, our New Martyrs have imitated the sufferings of the 40 Martyrs of Sebastea and even of the Apostles, such as St Peter and St Andrew. A great witness to Christ before the Soviets was the recently glorified Saint Jonah Otamansky, Priest of Odessa who reposed in 1924 (May 17). Jonah was famed for his miracles. When a young child who was diagnosed as incurably blind was brought to him, he prayed standing for nine nights straight! On the tenth night, the child regained its sight. The Bolsheviks held a trial of Fr. Jonah, but the professor of opthamology insisted that it was a true miracle. The Orthodox people of Odessa have a great veneration for their Saint who continues to send them miracles from Heaven. The Metropolitan and Founder of the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is St. Basil Lypkivsky, the New Hieromartyr. He has been Glorified by a Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction in Ukraine, although his cult has yet to be extended to all of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. At a time when Russification was smothering the Ukrainian Church, and when other Orthodox Churches refused to grant an independent hierarchy to the Ukrainian Authocephalous Orthodox Church, St Basil decided to consecrate this hierarchy in accordance with the principle used in the history of the Patriarchates of Alexandria and Seleucia-Ctesiphon. The principle, not recognized by Orthodox canon law, was that 12 or more Priests could, in circumstances of dire need, consecrate a Bishop. St Basil Tserkvostrij (Church-Builder) wrote many sermons, insitituted the Ukrainization of the Church which had floundered for so many years under her Russian colonial masters, and re-awakened a renewed interest in the Church among the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Sent to Siberia, St Basil met a martyr's death in the camps. His veneration is widespread among the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful, and even among a number of Ukrainian Catholics. By way of illustration, one Ukrainian Orthodox layman the writer of these lines once came across had a large portrait of St Basil enshrined in his apartment. Before it was a beautifully appointed table. He proudly exclaimed that St Basil always had fresh flowers before him throughout the year! He prayed before his Icons and the portrait of St Basil. He wept before the portrait and spoke to the Metropolitan as one would to a dear friend who was in the room then and there . . . Basil's successor, Metropolitan Nicholas Boretsky, (Glorified by a Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction in the U.S.) and other hieromartyrs of this period of Ukrainian Church history, have widespread local cults as well. |
