the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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cell of the church warden Febronia Ivanovna Tsibirkina [who gathered to
herself ‘all the offended and dispossessed’] that had been turned into a
‘catacomb’ church”. Believers from the surrounding villages gathered around
the elder and a kind of monastery was formed. They were joined by Priest
Ephraim Kurdyukov and Archimandrite Ignatius (Ignashkin), who had
returned from the camps. Fr. Pachomius was arrested on June 27, 1935, and
on September 21 was convicted by the NKVD of “being hostile to the existing
order, living illegally in Pichury, creating a counter-revolutionary group out
of ecclesiastical and monastic activists, conducting illegal meetings and
distributing counter-revolutionary literature, The Protocols of the Elders of
Sion. He was sentenced in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11 to five
years in the camps. Fr. Pachomius was sent to Karlag in Karaganda,
Kazakhstan. In 1937 he was arrested again, and on September 20 was
convicted by UNKVD of “participation in prayer meetings and distributing
prayers of counter-revolutionary content. He has not changed his convictions,
and while in prison has continued his counter-revolutionary activity,
conducting counter-revolutionary monarchist agitation among the prisoners.”
He was sentenced to death in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11. His
was part of the group case, “The Case of Metropolitan Eugene (Zernov) and
others, Karaganda, 1937”. The indictment said that prisoners Zernov, Ionov,
Byzhva, Aschepyev and Krejdich, gathering in various places, “under the
leadership of Zernov conducted counter-revolutionary religious propaganda
of a monarchist type, served pannikhidas for the shot enemies of the people
Tukhachevsky, Uborevich and others, and spread provocative rumours about
a war and the destruction of Soviet power”. Fr. Pachomius did not recognize
his guilt and was shot on some day in September, 1937.
Priest Ephraim Mikhailovich Kurdyukov. He was born in 1882 in the
village of Potodeyevo, Narovchatsky region, Mordovia, and served in the
village of Vopilovka, Narovchatsky region. In 1931 he was arrested and
sentenced to ten years in the camps. He was released early and returned on
June 26, 1932. On June 27, 1935 he was arrested for “participation in religious
anti-Soviet meetings”, was cast into Penza House of Preliminary Arrest, and
on September 21 was sentenced in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11 to
five years’ exile I the north. He also accused that “he joined a group of
churchmen headed by [Fr. Pachomius] Ionov, took part in illegal meetings
and helped Ionov to hide in the underground”. Nothing more is known about
him.
*
Priest Euthymius Fyodorovich Kulikov was born on December 22, 1876 in
the village of Shuty (now Savinki), Narovchatsky uyezd, Penza province. On
August 19, 1888 he finished his studies at the Shuty village school, and in 1895
– at the Narochatsky uyezd school. On May 20, 1895 he became a teacher in a
church-parish school in the village of Abashevo, Narovchatsky uyezd. On
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