the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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in Belebejsk uyezd, Ufa province, not far from the village of Nikolayevka,
Karyavdinskaya volost. This was a Chuvash community, which was given the
status of a monastery by the Holy Synod in 1901. Here Michael was tonsured
with the name Metrophanes. In 1915 Bishop Andrew of Ufa ordained him to
the diaconate, and in 1918 – to the priesthood. After the closure of his
monastery in 1929, Fr. Metrophanes served in parish churches in the Ufa and
Kazan dioceses. At the beginning of the 1930s he was serving in the village of
Toisi, Tsivilsky region, and in the village of Pervoye Churyashevo, October
region, in Ufa province. At one stage he came under the omophorion of
Bishop Habbakuk.
During this period Hieromonk Gurias (Pavlov) was serving in the
Shutnerovskaya church. In 1932 the two hieromonks were arrested almost
simultaneously and accused of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”, but
were convicted in different trials. Hieromonk Metrophanes was sentenced to
three years’ exile and sent to Kologriv in Kostroma diocese. In 1935 he
returned to Chuvashia, and again met Fr. Gurias in the church of the village
of Akulevka, Cheboksari region. The two priests then stayed together in Fr.
Metrophanes’ house in Tipnery. Thereafter they frequently met each other,
although both were forced to live the lives of wanderers. Fr. Gurias confessed
with Fr. Metrophanes and later declared at his interrogation that Fr.
Metrophanes was his spiritual father.
In the summer of 1950 Fr. Metrophanes sent the Chuvash MGB a letter
containing a brochure called “My Life in Christ”, with a very strong antisoviet
content. He was summoned to the MGB, and promised not to publish
the text. After signing this promise he repented of it, considering it a sin
before God.
Fr. Gurias relates that at the end of March, 1951 he met Fr. Metrophanes in
a Chuvash village on the other side of the Volga not far from the settlement of
Zvenigovo in Mari ASSR. They gave each other Holy Unction, confessed and
received Communion. Then Fr. Metrophanes said that he had to cross the
Volga. Fr. Gurias tried to dissuade him – it was the time of the spring thaw,
and Fr. Metrophanes only had bast shoes. But Fr. Metrophanes was
unbending. He gave his bronze icon of the Kazan Mother of God together
with other holy things to Fr. Gurias and left. Towards the end of March Fr.
Metrophanes arrived in Zvenigovo, where he stayed for a few days with the
parishioner Gregory Ivanov. It was then that he told Gregory that he would
soon die, and he wanted to die as a martyr. So he would soon go to the square
and denounce the antichristian authorities. Gregory tried to dissuade him, but
on March 26 Fr. Metrophanes gave a speech before the people against the
atheist authorities and tore down a slogan with the name of Stalin from the
wall of a shop, tearing it to pieces. He was arrested and sent to the Zvenigovo
regional department of the MGB, where he continued to preach and tried to
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