the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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gathered together, expressed dismay that the horses were being confiscated
when they were so necessary for bringing in the harvest. Fr. Peter stood up
before the peasants and spoke about the injustice of Soviet power. The
meeting was broken up with the aid of arms by communists and village
activists. An investigation was conducted. Fr. Peter was captured and,
according to a Cheka document dated November 25, 1918, after the uprising
had been suppressed, was sentenced to be shot together with another priest
called Panov for inciting the people to counter-revolutionary insurrection.
According to one version, his execution was also linked with his refusal to
hand over the metrical books of the parish, which contained the main
information about the parishioners and was kept in the church.
After being cruelly beaten, Fr. Peter was put on a cart and taken beyond
the bounds of the village. Throughout the night the semi-conscious priest
read prayers, while his tormentors were tormented by fears and visions. At
dawn the next day Fr. Peter was cast into Sosulinsky pond. There, not long
before Pentecost, a shepherd noticed something like light and singing by the
water (several kilometres from the village). Then they found the body of Fr.
Peter, which had a waxen colour and was completely incorrupt. Matushka
Lydia Feodorovna was frightened to take the body of her husband without
permission. Only when the village soviet gave permission did she and her
elder son Anatoly bury Fr. Peter beside the altar of the church on May 31,
1919, the Day of the Holy Spirit. A cross now stands on the grave.
*
Priest John Ostrovsky was shot by a punitive detachment of Red Army
soldiers in November, 1918 in the village of Bondari, Tambov province.
In 1918 Priests Alexander and Alexis, Deacon Basil, the church warden
Gregory and the laymen Antipas and John were killed in the village of
Bondari, Tambov province. They were buried in the village cemetery in a
common grave of 24 people killed by the persecutors of the faith.
*
Deacon Gregory Shemetov and Reader Demetrius Kornilov served in the
village of Perkino, Tambov province. On November 4, 1918 they were shot by
a unit of Red Army soldiers and buried in a common grave of 24 people who
had been killed by the Bolsheviks.
*
In 1918 the priest of the village of Olshanki, Tambov diocese, Fr. Nicholas
Kasatkin, was murdered. The criminals stole all the money that was in his
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