the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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"'Pray, be patient and be strong!' These words were engraved on her
memory for the rest of her live.
"On the second or third day after his arrival in Ephremov he left for
Moscow. On the platform thousands of people gathered to say farewell to
their Vladyka. And he stood at the window in the carriage also saying
farewell to the people. Suddenly the light in the carriage was turned off so
that those who had gathered should not be able to see Vladyka. Soon the train
moved, the people surged forward following him, but what could they do
now? The irreparable was quickly accomplished. The people were not
destined to meet the man who had given them all the warmth of his pastor's
heart again.
"In Moscow Bishop Sergius was appointed to Buzuluk as vicar of the
Samara diocese (1927).
"At this time K.S., who was a fifteen-year-old girl, went to Voronezh to
continue her education. On learning about this, Vladyka sent her his
photograph from Buzuluk - he was standing near the little house where he
lived, and from a window there looked out that same aunt of his - Anna
Antonovna Tiptsova. On the back Vladyka had written in his own hand:
'Look where you've flown to, my swallow!'
"Then communication was broken off. It felt as if something had happened
to Bishop Sergius.
"Much later, people recounted how in 1927, after Metropolitan Sergius'
declaration had been issued, Bishop Sergius had himself taken off his
episcopal vestments in the church and refused to follow what he considered
to be the anticanonical orders of Metropolitan Sergius…”
Bishop Sergius was arrested on June 22, 1928. On September 28 he was
condemned for “anti-Soviet agitation” and sentenced to three years’
deprivation of the right to live in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kiev and
Odessa with confinement to one domicile. He went to live in Ufa.
On March 25, 1930 he was arrested again in Ufa and cast into the Domzak
in Orenburg. There, at the request of his sister, he was visited by Nun Irina
(Gladysheva), who was martyred a year later. On April 27 he was condemned
to be shot for “participation in a church-sectarian organization, on whose
orders he carried out counter-revolutionary activity”. On May 16, 1930, Holy
Thursday, he was shot on Mayak hill in Orenburg together with Priest
Erastus Kurdyukov, Hierodeacon Lev and Schema-Monk Martyrius.
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