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the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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352<br />

Priest Philaret Ioannovich Velikanov was born on May 14, 1873 in <strong>the</strong><br />

family <strong>of</strong> a deacon <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> town <strong>of</strong> Verkny Lomov. Having finished his studies<br />

at <strong>the</strong> Penza <strong>the</strong>ological seminary, on October 7, 1891 he was appointed<br />

reader at <strong>the</strong> church <strong>of</strong> Nizhny Lomov. From October 18, 1895 he was a<br />

teacher <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Nizhny Lomov resurrection school. On May 25, 1896 he was<br />

ordained to <strong>the</strong> diaconate, and on September 10 he was appointed to <strong>the</strong><br />

teacher-deacon post at <strong>the</strong> church <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Exaltation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Cross in <strong>the</strong> village<br />

<strong>of</strong> Surkino, Narovchatovsky uyezd. On June 11, 1897 he was transferred to <strong>the</strong><br />

village <strong>of</strong> Bolshoj Azyas, Krasnoslobodsky uyezd, and on August 23, 1901 he<br />

was appointed steward <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Krasnoslobodsky spiritual school. On March 2,<br />

1904 he was appointed deacon <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Oborochny, Karsnoslobodsky<br />

uyezd, in March, 1904 - steward <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Tikhonovsky spiritual school in Penza,<br />

and on June 10, 1909 - steward <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Penza <strong>the</strong>ological seminary. On October<br />

30, 1916 he was ordained to <strong>the</strong> priesthood. He was by this time a widower.<br />

In November, 1916 Fr. Philaret was transferred to <strong>the</strong> Kazan diocese as<br />

steward <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Academy, a very responsible administrative post. At <strong>the</strong> same<br />

time he was appointed priest <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> St. Michael <strong>the</strong> Archangel Academy<br />

church. On May 23 (according to ano<strong>the</strong>r source, September 11), 1918 <strong>the</strong><br />

Moscow Archaeological Institute elected him a member-co-worker.<br />

When most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> clergy <strong>of</strong> Kazan left <strong>the</strong> city toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> Whites, <strong>the</strong><br />

workers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Krestovnikov bro<strong>the</strong>rs asked <strong>the</strong> Academy to let Fr. Philaret<br />

serve <strong>the</strong>m in <strong>the</strong> Borisoglebsk church. This was granted for one month from<br />

September 11.<br />

On October 11 Fr. Philaret was arrested on <strong>the</strong> false charge made by two<br />

members <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cheka that he had walked armed through <strong>the</strong> Academy<br />

slobodka and threatened <strong>the</strong> communists in hiding with execution. He was<br />

taken to <strong>the</strong> building <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Kazan cheka, where he was condemned by a<br />

military tribunal for “participation in <strong>the</strong> counter-revolutionary adventure <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> Czechoslovaks”, and was sentenced to be shot. He managed to smuggle a<br />

letter out <strong>of</strong> prison to Bishop Anatolius (Grisyuk) which showed that he had<br />

suffered much from <strong>the</strong> authorities, but that he was ready for death: "The<br />

whole <strong>of</strong> my life has been passed in sin. I do not know that I have done any<br />

good works... God is punishing me for my sins." The sentence <strong>of</strong> execution<br />

was confirmed on October 22, and S. Talyzin wrote to his fa<strong>the</strong>r from <strong>the</strong><br />

same prison that Fr. Philaret had "with fitting courage accepted his martyric<br />

death".<br />

Priest Daniel Stefanovich Dymov was born in Kazan in 1884 into a poor<br />

tradesman's family. From 1901 to 1904 he was a teacher in <strong>the</strong> people's school<br />

in <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Verkhny Uslon. Then he was enrolled in <strong>the</strong> army. He served<br />

in Petrograd from 1905 to 1907, where, caught up in <strong>the</strong> general revolutionary<br />

fervour, he was among 120 people sentenced to exile in <strong>the</strong> Caucasus for two<br />

352

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