the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

590
in the Ufa diocese. It had three churches, a church-parish school, a monastic
economy with fruit trees, kitchen-gardens and apiaries. The nuns worked in
the guest-house for pilgrims, in workshops devoted to iconography, goldweaving,
carpentry, dress-making and book-binding, and also baking bread
and prosphoras and preparing food. The monastery even had its own
photographic studio – an extreme rarity at that time. In 1917 there were fifty
nuns and 248 novices. The intelligent and educated abbess was renowned for
her strict ascetic life and the good order she introduced into the monastery in
the old Russian spirit.
In April, 1917 the revolutionary wave also hit the Prophet Elijah
monastery. By decree of the Provisional Government, the church-parish
schools had to be transferred into the administration of the Ministry of
popular enlightenment, but the abbess tried to defend the monastery’s school
from this transfer on the grounds that the property and buildings of the
school belonged to the monastery and that the pupils were its novices. She
declared that the upkeep of the school would from now on be the
responsibility of the monastery (under the Tsars the State had paid the
teachers). The unshakeable will of the abbess to keep the school’s education in
the Orthodox faith had an unexpected result: the city left the school in her
hands. Moreover, since city girls were studying in it, the city decided to pay
the teachers and provide the necessary equipment.
On April 18, 1918 Abbess Margaret was elected a member of the diocesan
council.
In May, 1918 the Czech legion rebelled, and by July the whole province
had been liberated from the Bolsheviks. However, battles still continued on
the western boundaries of the province, and Menzelinsk changed hands
between the combatants several times. In the late summer the Whites
abandoned Kazan; and according to Nun Alevtina, a previous inhabitant of
the monastery, Abbess Margaret at one time decided to leave with the Whites
and not remain under the authority of the Bolsheviks. She was at the wharf
preparing to leave when St. Nicholas appeared to her and said:
"Why are you running from your crown?"
Stunned by the vision, Abbess Margaret returned to the monastery and
told the monastery priest about what had happened. And sensing that she
would soon have to suffer for the faith, she asked for her coffin to be prepared
in advance, and that she should be buried on the very day of her death, after
the burial service.
During the night of August 11–12 the Bolsheviks suddenly left Menzelinsk.
The citizens created a voluntary unit to guard the city and established links
with units of the White army. On August 21 the Bolsheviks renewed their
590