the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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The parishioners also did not want Fr. John to return. For some years he went
into hiding while they searched for him. During the war it was not advisable
for men to show themselves in any case. People would write their confessions
to him, and he would read the prayer of absolution. He would also distribute
the Holy Gifts through two Annas: “small Anna”, who was a tall, beautiful
18-year-old, and “big Anna”, who was already elderly, and Mother
Euphrosyne, who was also a beauty. The young Anna was arrested first. They
tortured her so fiercely that she wanted to throw herself off the boat on which
they were taking her somewhere. Big Anna was arrested already after Fr.
John. But both Annas returned, and the younger one later went to live in the
south.
Fr. John was very strict. He did not allow parents to bless their children to
join collective farms. Once he did not allow a couple to give their daughter in
marriage to a collective farm-worker. They said to her: “you will have no
blessing from us, or feast.” But the daughter married against her parents’ will.
They completely cut her off from themselves: “You are ours no longer,” they
said; “we would be excommunicated from the Church because of you.”
Once, on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the patronal feast of the
village church, the daughter went out to feed a pig. It thundered – and the
daughter was struck by lightning and killed. The mother went to bury her:
the father did not…
Once the police came to the house of the woman where Fr. John was living.
He was standing in prayer. The policemen waited until he had finished.
“Well, Protasov, the time has come,” they said. “I see that it has come,” said
Fr. John.
Some people managed to visit him in prison and bring him some food.
They said that he had been greatly tortured at his interrogation. Within a year
he died in prison.
Fr. John was of medium height and with reddish hair. Fr. Simeon was
young, good-looking, with black hair.
(Sources: Nun Tatyana, "Novomuchenik Nektarij (Trezvinsky), episkop
Yaranskij", Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, No. 2 (566), February, 1997, pp. 1-6;
A.V.Zh., "Kazanskij period zhizni Vladyki Nektariya, episkopa Yaranskago",
Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, No. 2 (566), February, 1997, pp. 7-15; "Poslaniya i
pis'ma svyat. Nektariya", Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, No. 2 (566), February,
1997, pp. 16-24; M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyateishago Patriarkha Tikhona,
Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1994, p. 982; "Oppozitsiya
mitropolitu Sergiyu v Kazanskoj eparkhii", Pravoslavnaya Rus', N 10 (1535),
May 15/28, 1995, pp. 10-11; Russkiye Pravoslavnye Ierarkhi, Paris: YMCA
Press, 1986, p. 51; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Istoki i svyazi Katakombnoj
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