the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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Gospel quotations, were so fiery that people sobbed. In July, 1928 Fr.
Onesimus took the place of Fr. John Zhuravlev, who had been arrested, in the
church of St. Nicholas in the cave skete in Vavilov Dale, Ivanteyevsky region.
He took to heart the words of Patriarch Tikhon calling the Bolsheviks
“outcasts of the human race” whose work was “satanic, for which the fire of
gehenna awaits you in the future life beyond the grave”. He expressed the
same thoughts in a more hidden way. But everybody understood what he was
talking about. He was arrested in 1929. “The court evaluates the actions of
Pryakhin and Zhuravlev as most serious crimes, though cleverly masked,
which have been committed in a period of intensification of the class struggle,
in accordance with which it considers it necessary to define for them measures
of social defence” – in other words, the death penalty… Fr. Onesimus did not
accept that he was guilty.
Theodore Alexandrovich Malov was a rich peasant melon-grower, living
in the village of Ivanovka, Ivanteyevsky region, Saratov province. In 1912 he
oversaw the construction of a church in Vavilov Dale, and after its opening in
1914 became its permanent trustee. He was greatly honoured among the
people. After the death of his wife, when all his children were already grown
up and with families, he finally went to live in the cave skete in Vavilov Dale.
There he became a preacher, speaking about the speedy approach of the end of
the world and the coming of the Antichrist, who was now unbound and come
out onto the earth in the form of the atheists and Bolsheviks. In his speeches he
talked about how they were robbing the peasants of their bread and stealing
their last animals. He called all the actions of Soviet power satanic and against
God. Theodore Alexandrovich devoted all his time to preaching. He spoke
ardently and openly, in no way fearing to suffer for his accusatory speeches.
He expressed in everything his readiness to accept persecutions for the faith.
When he left his house for the last time, he said to those in it: “Pray for me to
God.” He was arrested in 1929. From the records of the case we read: “The
court finds in Malov complete consciousness of his actions and irreconcilable
hostility to the workers’ and peasants’ power and a stubborn refusal to admit
to his crimes”. In 1929 he was shot.
Quadratus Fyodorovich Molodykh was born in the village of Orekhovka,
Buzuluk region, Samara district into a pious peasant family. The house was
often visited by monks, from whom Quadratus learned to read and write, and
wanderers, who would take Quadratus with them on their travels. And so
from the age of 18 he wandered around the holy places. He lived for a long
time in the St. Nicholas monastery in Saratov province. Then, after serving for
seven years in the 60 th Vladivostok regiment, he again began wandering. He
went on foot to Sarov and the Tambov sketes, through the Ukraine and then
came to Vavilov Dale and stayed there in the cave skete. He was small in
stature with a dishevelled beard of greying hair that hid his face. He had a
brass cross which the demons feared. After molebens conducted in the houses
of villagers, Quadratus Fyodorovich would plunge the cross into the chalice
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