the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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30. HIEROMARTYRS AND MARTYRS OF THE MIDDLE AND
LOWER VOLGA REGION
Priest Peter Voznesensky served in the village of Yasashnaya Tashla,
Simbirsk uyezd, Simbirsk province). He was married with seven children. He
always rebuked those who went against God and the Church. This was very
displeasing to the new authorities. In 1917 some soldiers came to him at night
and cast lots to see who should shoot him. The one to whom the lot fell
refused, saying:
"The priest has seven children, they will be orphans, I can't."
Then another decided to do it. They summoned Fr. Peter to the window, he
came up, and the soldier immediately shot him - straight in the heart.
Fr. Peter was shot at the church. Now there is no church there - it was
destroyed. And the grave was washed away by a river.
*
Priest Vladimir Piksanov was serving in the Pokrov church of the village
of Pavlovka, Khvalynsky uyezd, Simbirsk province. He was a good pastor,
and many people went to batyushka for advice and consolation. Fr. Vladimir
enjoyed great authority in the village as an educated and discerning man. The
villagers went to church with joy, dressed in their best clothes. The choir was
renowned far beyond the confines of Pavlovka. In 1917 he was conducting a
service when some armed men came into the church. They did not allow him
to take off his epitrachelion, but took him away with insults. The people
followed him in a crowd. Many of the women wept. Batyushka calmly stood
opposite his persecutors. Making the sign of the cross, he said: “O Lord, accept
my soul!” And the epitrachelion was stained with his blood. In the evening it
was quiet in the village. In many families they wept and prayed for the
murdered priest.
*
In 1917 or 1918 Priest James, superior of the Sarapul Startsevo-Gorsky-
Ioanno-Predtechensky monastery, was killed by the Bolsheviks, who forced
him to dig a pit and then shot him on the edge of it.
*
Protopriest Ioann Anastasiev was serving in the Pokrov cathedral in the
city of Sengiley, Simbirsk province. On March 18, 1918 he was arrested for
“refusing to cooperate with Soviet power” and imprisoned in Sengiley.
Nothing more is known about him.
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