Who "hurried" with canonization? The Synodal Commission found no grounds for glorifying soldier Yevgeny Rodionov as a saint. Martyr Eugene

“Die for the Faith and Fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven »

Twenty years ago, on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, a young Russian soldier received the crown of martyrdom. On Holy Mount Athos, in Greece, in Serbia and other countries, the new martyr is revered today, calling him the warrior Eugene the Russian.

In 1996, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord fell on May 23. On this day Evgeniy turned 19 years old. After 100 days of captivity, having failed to break a young Russian soldier through torture, the bandits last time asked the young man to make a choice - to remove pectoral cross IR, convert to Islam and save your life, or accept a painful death. The leader of the Khaikhoroev gang, in the presence of OSCE representatives, told Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova: “It’s my own fault. If he had taken off the cross, he would have lived. “Whoever doesn’t want to become our brother, we break them or kill them.” The bandits told the Russian soldier’s mother: “It’s your own fault - you raised him poorly. You had him as a greyhound. If he took off the cross, he would be our brother, we would marry him, buy a house.” The executioners were unable to break the four young Russian soldiers captured by the terrorists Evgeniy Rodionov, Andrei Zheleznov, Yuri Trusov, and Igor Yakovlev. The guys were captured treacherously: an “ambulance pill” was constantly passing through the checkpoint on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia. 15 seasoned bandits suddenly jumped out of the car. The young border guards did not give up without a fight - there were traces of struggle and blood on the road. But even in captivity, the four Russian guys remained real warriors. The executioners were unable to break their spirit, no one wanted to become a “brother” to the fanatical bandits, no one betrayed their homeland. But the terrorists were especially angry at Zhenya Rodionov’s pectoral cross (the other guys had soldier’s medallions on their chests).

On May 23, 1996, Evgeny Rodionov turned 19 years old. On this day, the bandits offered him the last time to remove the cross, threatening to cut off his head. Likewise, Christians in the Roman Empire were offered a choice between the cross and a painful death. The same choice was offered to the new martyrs during the years of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. Zhenya refused to remove the cross.

Judas vs heroes

Let's think about why the bandits tried to force Zhenya to take off his pectoral cross, because they themselves could have torn it off the chest of a captured soldier?

In those years, the Salafis fought with us in Chechnya, and today they have built their own terrorist state on the lands of Iraq and Syria. Today the whole world watches in horror as fanatics cut off the heads of hostages and exterminate everyone who does not accept their ideology. I wonder, after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium, will Europeans remember how they sympathized with the “freedom fighters” when they killed Russians in the Caucasus and Serbs in devastated Yugoslavia with the same cruelty?

In the Russian North Caucasus in the 90s, the Salafis hoped to create a springboard for their worldwide pseudo-Islamic caliphate. In the Caucasus, mercenaries from 50 countries fought against us, money for waging “jihad” against the Russians came in a continuous stream from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the intelligence services of Turkey and the United States stood behind the Islamic terrorists. Islamist propaganda suggested that Russia was on its last legs, that Russians were those who had lost faith in God, a people who were slowly becoming an alcoholic under the rule of oligarchs-traders. In “democratic” Russia, everything is for sale, in the Kremlin they obediently carry out the orders of the “Washington Regional Committee”, money for the war against the “infidels” arrives regularly. And, consequently, the “invincible warriors of Islam” will soon defeat the cowardly “kafirs.” First torn away from Russia North Caucasus, and then spread “jihad” to the Volga region and Siberia. The Islamists considered the territory of our country as their legitimate prey.

In Chechnya, the Army, sold dozens of times and betrayed by the “democratic authorities,” fought the hardest bloody battles with gangs of terrorists, while its own media were methodically hitting it in the back, skillfully using all the techniques of information warfare. We remember how liberal journalists mocked the failures of the “federals” with a grin, and how they gloatingly reported about our losses. We remember how the so-called “human rights activists” admired the “proud Chechen freedom fighters” and “Robin Hood” Basayev, who hid from special forces bullets behind the backs of women in labor in Budenovsk. IN New Year's Eve in Grozny, the Maikop brigade perished, the paratroopers fought heroically to hold the station, and at that time the new masters of life were laughing, dancing and drinking champagne on all television channels. In the fierce March battles in Grozny, SOBR fighters died, and the whole country celebrated March 8, champagne flowed like a river on TV screens again and the new “elite” and its faithful servants of politicians and show business stars had a lot of fun. This has never happened in Russia. The triumph of Ham and Judas. They reveled in their own impunity and power over the captured country. In Chechnya, an “international international of terrorists” fought with us with the support of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the intelligence services of our “overseas partners” with the assistance of the OSCE and other organizations that ensure that the Russians “use force proportionately” in the war against terrorists. And most importantly, with the help of the “fifth column”, which behaved like a master in the highest offices of the Kremlin. The enemy was strong and cruel, but more terrible than the enemy were Judas’s own traitors.

Time of Troubles always gives rise to Judas-traitors. But Russia won all the troubles thanks to the heroes who, in this tragic time, were ready to “lay down their souls for their friends.” Such heroes turned out to be Zhenya Rodionov, Andrei Trusov, Alexander Zheleznov, Igor Yakovlev and dozens of other boys whom the bandits could not break in Chechen captivity. We will never know the names of all those who remained faithful to the oath and suffered martyrdom at the hands of fanatical executioners. Many of them are still listed as missing. Today only their military friends and close relatives know about examples of the highest military valor and the heroism of our soldiers who fought international terrorism in the Caucasus in those years.

But it was precisely the feat of the Russian soldiers and officers who stood up to die at this last frontier that kept Russia from destruction. The heroes of the most difficult war in the Caucasus in those years did not allow the Judaic thieves and their overseas masters to finally finish off the bloodless and plundered country with the hands of Islamic terrorists.

Russian soldier defeated fanatical executioners

At the beginning Chechen war Dudayev, Basayev and Khattab were confident of their victory. They said that in Russia everything is bought and sold, and therefore Russians are leaving the historical stage, that Russia is a wounded, dying old bear, and they are young predatory wolves. They asserted that the warriors of Allah would certainly defeat the former, mired in vices and having lost his faith. great people, ruled by traders. They looked with a contemptuous grin at Russian TV, where, at the behest of their owners, corrupt journalists described their “exploits”, mocked their own army, saw in the Kremlin the all-powerful Berezovsky and Gusinsky and the drunken “guarantor” of the Constitution. In order to assert their superiority over the “infidels,” it was very important for the bandits to break the prisoners, force them to convert to Islam, and fight on their side. The bandits had to prove that they were stronger than the Russians. It was no coincidence that Khaikhoroev told Lyubov Vasilyevna: “We either break or kill those who do not want to become our brothers.”

In the battles in Grozny and Gudermes, in Samashki and Komsomolskoye, in the mountains and gorges, the terrorists suffered heavy losses. They saw how Russian soldiers, yesterday's schoolchildren, very quickly learn to fight, how steadfastly and bravely they fight. And these boys, under the command of Russian officers, successfully beat well-trained seasoned bandits and professional mercenaries. The terrorists understood that if orders from the Kremlin had not stopped Russian army, then their numerous and well-armed gangs would have been completely defeated and finished off. Treacherous orders stopped the army, allowed the terrorists to lick their wounds, receive reinforcements, new weapons, and regroup. But the army, repeatedly sold and betrayed by the “democratic” government, continued to fight. Methodically and diligently, in accordance with all the rules and laws of information and psychological warfare, the Russian “democratic” media continued to hit our soldiers and officers in the back “with all guns.” But the army crushed and pushed back the terrorist gangs. The bandits felt that they were faced with an incomprehensible Russian force that was ruining all their plans to create a caliphate in the Caucasus. Can “kafirs” who do not believe in God fight like that? And in Zhenya Rodionov’s cross they felt the source of that mysterious force that forced Russian soldiers and officers to fight so courageously and persistently.

Therefore, it was important for the bandits to break Zhenya, to force him to take off his cross. But the young Russian soldier chose the Cross, death at the hands of the executioner and Eternal Life. On his nineteenth birthday, which on May 23, 1996 coincided with the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, Zhenya Rodionov was awarded the crown of martyrdom. Like most martyred warriors of the first centuries, the young Russian border guard was executed by beheading. Inhuman fanatics cut off Zhenya’s head, but the cross was never removed from him. The executioners, unable to break them, executed the soldiers Andrei, Alexander, and Igor. And in captivity, Russian soldiers managed to win their victory over the bandits, “trampling down death with death.”

Where does the Motherland begin?

The cross was placed on Zhenya at the age of 11 by her grandmother before leading her grandson to Communion. Lyubov Vasilyevna was afraid that her peers would laugh at her son at school and during training in the sambo section. But Zhenya never took off the cross.

Undoubtedly, for Zhenya, this small cross embodied everything that was most dear to her - love for her mother, loyalty to her friends and comrades, a monument over the mass grave of paratroopers of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War, to which she and Lyubov Vasilievna always brought flowers, the border guard’s oath of allegiance to the Motherland. Remember the song we all grew up with:

Where does the Motherland begin?

From the picture in your ABC book,

From good and faithful comrades,

Living in the neighboring yard.

Or maybe it's starting

From the song that our mother sang to us,

Since in any test

No one can take it away from us.

Indeed, it all begins “with the song that our mother sang to us.” In this small cross for Zhenya, everything that Lyubov Vasilievna put into his heart was concentrated, everything “that no one can take away from us in any trials.”

For the Russian warrior, over the centuries, loyalty to Christ the Savior and loyalty to the Motherland were inseparable from each other. Foreigners wrote with surprise that for the Russians to betray their Tsar and Russia meant to betray Christ. Most likely, Zhenya did not think about this, but acted as many generations of his ancestors had done for centuries. For more than a thousand years, for Russian people, the Motherland began with the first childhood prayer to Christ the Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos.

The authentic image and emblem of people's Russia

In the St. John the Baptist Skete of Optina Pustyn there is the grave of the monk Nicholas the Turk. Turkish general During the war for the liberation of the Slavs, I was amazed at how the Russian soldiers who were captured steadfastly endured all torture and accepted death, but did not renounce Christ. The General found the Gospel on French, read and confessed to be a Christian. The general was hacked to pieces, his bones were broken and he was left to die. The future Optina monk was picked up by Persian merchants and brought to Astrakhan. From Astrakhan he came to Optina, where he took monastic vows. The Optina elder Barsanuphius told the brethren that Fr. Nicholas is a modern confessor of Christ. At the same time, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in his “Diary” wrote about the feat of non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Turkestan Foma Danilov. They tried to force the captured Russian warrior to convert to Islam, promising various benefits and a high position at the court of Pulad Khan, and threatened him with painful death. The Russian soldier did not renounce Christ and was executed on Margelan Square, with a large crowd of people. Russian troops defeated the enemy and hanged the rebellious Pulad Khan, who was particularly cruel to prisoners. In Margelan, local residents told the Russians about the feat of Foma Danilov, emphasizing that “the Russian died like a real hero.”

F.M. Dostoevsky writes:

“Last year, in the spring, the news that appeared in the Russian Invalid about martyrdom non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Turkestan Rifle Battalion Foma Danilov, captured by the Kipchaks and barbarously killed by them after numerous and most refined tortures, on November 21, 1875, in Margelan, because he did not want to go into their service and into Mohammedanism. The khan himself promised him pardon, reward and honor if he agreed to renounce Christ. Danilov replied that he could not change the cross and, as a tsar’s subject, although in captivity, he must fulfill his duty to the tsar and to Christianity. The torturers, having tortured him to death, were surprised at the strength of his spirit and called him batyr, that is, in Russian, hero.” Dostoevsky was outraged by the reaction to this message from a significant part of the representatives of educated society, captured by the ideas of liberalism. Liberals argued that “there are also immeasurably higher ideas - the idea of ​​universal humanity, for example...” How this reminds us of today’s Russian liberals with their chatter about “universal human values,” “democracy,” and “human rights.”

But Fyodor Mikhailovich had no doubt that the reaction of the ordinary Russian people would be different.

“People, of course, have this great death will not be forgotten: this hero suffered torment for Christ and is a great Russian; the people will appreciate this and will not forget, and they never forget such things.”

“I’m not talking about the people: there is no need for surprise there, there will be no surprise in them; Thomas’s act cannot seem extraordinary to him, simply because of the great faith of the people in themselves and in their souls. He will respond to this feat only with great feeling and great tenderness. But if a similar fact happened in Europe, that is, a similar fact of manifestation of a great spirit, among the British, among the French, among the Germans, and they would probably shout about it to the whole world.”

Foma Danilov for Dostoevsky was the personification of Orthodox Russia.

“But this, so to speak, is the emblem of Russia, all of Russia, all of our people’s Russia, authentic image her, this very Russia in which our cynics and wise men now deny the great spirit and any possibility of the rise and manifestation of great thought and great feeling.”

These words of the great Russian writer-prophet can also be applied to Zhenya Rodionov. In the most difficult 90s, when “our wise cynics” argued that the people had degraded, drunk themselves and were no longer capable of “great deeds” or “great feelings,” the feat of the warrior Eugene was revealed to Russia. In the years when the cult of the “golden calf” was imposed on society, Zhenya became an emblem, an image of the eternal Orthodox Russia, which no enemies could ever and will never be able to break. And our people responded to this feat with “great feeling and great tenderness,” as predicted by Fyodor Mikhailovich, who perfectly understood the soul of the Russian people.

Warrior Eugene gathers Russian people at his Cross

All these twenty years, Orthodox Russian people have been honoring the memory of Zhenya Rodionov, without doubting that the nineteen-year-old Russian soldier accomplished the same feat as the martyred soldiers who suffered for Christ in the first centuries of the history of the Church. Icons of the warrior Eugene stream myrrh, there are known cases of miraculous help, when a young warrior in camouflage and a red cloak of a martyr appeared to soldiers who escaped from Chechen captivity, wounded in hospitals, providing miraculous help. One day, a warrior in camouflage and a “red cloak-tent” appeared to a homeless tramp girl and led her by the hand to the shelter, after which he disappeared. The warrior-martyr Eugene the Russian is revered in Greece and Serbia, and his icons are painted on Holy Mount Athos. Even in the USA, on May 23 and on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist, a rite of special commemoration of the warrior Eugene was established for Orthodox military chaplains. People from all over Russia come to the graveyard at the Church of the Ascension in the village of Satino-Russkoe, where Zhenya is buried. On May 23, pilgrims from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Kyiv and Donetsk gather here, and Siberians come.

This year, on May 23, at the Cross over the grave of the warrior Eugene at 7 am Divine Liturgy. Then, replacing each other, the priests served requiem services at the grave of the new martyr. Some priests were finishing the prayer, the newly arrived priests were already dressed to serve a memorial service for the soldiers Eugene, Alexander, Andrei, Igor. The prayer did not stop throughout the day. At the Cross of Warrior Eugene there was an honor guard of the Presidential Preobrazhensky Regiment. The guard of honor and the Banner Group of Preobrazhentsev were replaced by the guard of honor and the banner of the Airborne Forces. Then, cadets stood on guard of honor at the Russian Soldier's Cross; they were replaced by border guard soldiers. Until the evening, people arrived in Satino-Russkoye. Whole parishes came, traveling on buses and cars, Cossacks, cadets, nuns, border guards, grandmothers and Sunday school students, young schoolchildren and gray-haired Afghan soldiers. Every year on this day, the Russian people gather at the Cross of the warrior Eugene, who responded to this feat with “great feeling and great tenderness.” Zhenya Rodionov today is the emblem and image of the Orthodox Russian people. Over the years we have seen genuine popular veneration of the warrior-martyr.

Officials in robes

But some church officials still have doubts about whether Evgeniy Rodionov is worthy of glorification as a saint. The logic of officials is often incomprehensible to an ordinary person. They claim that the feat of Zhenya Rodionov is allegedly known only from the words of his mother, and the testimony of close relatives cannot be considered by the commission for the canonization of saints. But the killer himself, in front of witnesses, OSCE officials and representatives of the “committee of soldiers’ mothers,” clearly said that Zhenya was killed because he refused to remove the cross. What else do officials need? Help from Khaikhoroev? So Khaikhoroev, like Basayev, Raduev, Khattab, Abu-Walid and hundreds of other “el-murids” and other terrorist leaders who dreamed of building their own pseudo-Islamic caliphate on our land, have long been destroyed.

It is probably impossible for church officials to imagine what it means to survive 100 days of Chechen captivity in a zindan near Bamut. This is “in the world even death is red,” and in captivity you are “missing in action” for everyone. And no one will ever know where and how you died, whether you removed the cross or not. Who did the young Russian boy face on his birthday, May 23, 1996, making his choice - to take off his pectoral cross and stay alive, or to put his throat under the knife of a grinning executioner? For any ordinary Orthodox person it is clear that the warrior Eugene at that moment stood before Christ, and on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord another Christian warrior-martyr joined the host of Russian saints Orthodox Church.

As for the mother’s testimony, let me remind you that the holy noble prince-martyrs Mikhail of Chernigov and Vasilko of Rostov were glorified by Princess Maria of Rostov, the daughter of Mikhail and the wife of Vasilko. If we follow the logic of church officials, the testimony of Maria Mikhailovna would clearly not be enough for the martyred princes to be revered as saints in Rus'.

But let us remember that it is not the canonization commission that glorifies the holy saints of God. The Lord glorifies the saints, and the commission’s task is only to collect evidence of holiness. And one of the most important evidence is popular veneration.

In border detachments, and in other military units, having learned from conversations about Zhenya’s feat, that he did not take off his cross, many 18-year-old boys ask to be baptized. Many officers and priests caring for the troops can testify to this. The priests told me that as soon as you start talking about Zhenya with the soldiers, a special silence sets in, stern and reverent. Faces become thoughtful. The guys apply his feat to their own lives. Is this not evidence that the feat of Evgeniy Rodionov leads souls to Christ?

Once I had to hear that “the new martyrs are those who suffered during the years of persecution during the era of the totalitarian regime.” And those who suffered at the hands of Satanists in the era of “freedom, democracy and universal tolerance”, are they “the newest martyrs”?

We honor the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who suffered from the atheists in the 17th and 18th years, in the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century. Of course, the scope and scale of persecution at that time was comparable only to the most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. But at the end of the twentieth century in Russia, Satanists also killed dozens of priests, monks and ordinary laymen. Let us remember what happened in the 90s in the Caucasus. It is no coincidence that Muslims call Islamic extremists “Iblis.” These terrorists kill not only non-believers, but also mullahs and imams who preach traditional Islam. The whole world sees what the same terrorists with whom we fought in the North Caucasus are doing in Syria today. The fanatics from ISIS exterminate entire villages not only of Christians, Druze, Alawites, but also of Muslims who do not accept their teachings. In the 90s, Wahhabis in Chechnya tortured and killed Fr. Anatoly Chistousov, Abbot Pyotr Sukhonosov. In Terminauze, at the altar of the temple, Fr. was killed by a Wahhabi. Igor Rozin. Aren’t the bandits who kill Christians at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries the same “spirits of evil in high heaven” as behind the fanatical god-fighters who ritually killed the Holy Royal Family, with hatred exterminated bishops, priests, monks and thousands of ordinary lay people? during the years of persecution?

Indifference to the exploits of the Optina New Martyrs and the warrior Eugene is a dangerous symptom of a person’s spiritual state. The Holy Fathers wrote that those who do not honor the martyrs for Christ who were close in time, thereby interrupt the living connection with the ancient saints, with the Heavenly Church.

Soldier's mother

Lyubov Vasilievna suffered a lot from the indifference of various officials, both military and civilian. In those days, when Zhenya Rodionov was sitting in jail near Bamut, the police came to the Rodionovs’ house to look for a “deserter.” A telegram arrived at the military registration and enlistment office marked “SOCH” - “left the unit without permission.” For nine months, Lyubov Vasilyevna walked through the mountains of Chechnya trying to find her son, until the executioner Khaikhoroev himself informed her about Zhenya’s execution. Then, having mortgaged the apartment, she went to negotiations with bandits 17 times, trying to buy Zhenya’s body. “Freedom fighters,” as the so-called bandits and terrorists were called. “human rights activists” and corrupt journalists haggled for a long time, putting forward new demands each time. They demanded that the surrounding roads be cleared of mines, or that their accomplices be released from prison. Then, having sold Zhenya’s body, they asked for additional money to give the mother the head of her murdered son.

Since then, Lyubov Vasilievna has been to Chechnya more than 70 times. She transported tens of tons of cargo, things and products she personally collected, to mountain outposts, to border guards, to paratroopers, and to motorized riflemen. The guys there greeted her with shouts: “Mom! Mom has arrived! And how many wounded did she pull out of difficult situations, some found money for complex operations abroad, expensive German prostheses. She is a real "soldier's mother." Lyubov Vasilievna says: “They are all my children now.” And this is not said for the sake of words. This will be confirmed by everyone who knows Lyubov Vasilievna. She lives a very difficult life. But her whole life is selfless service to the guys who, like Zhenya, defend their Motherland.

Having known Lyubov Vasilievna for many years, I testify: she never sought to glorify Zhenya as a saint. Lyubov Vasilievna always emphasized that there were many guys like Zhenya, but we will never know the names of all the unknown heroes. For her, her son was simply an honest, kind, good boy who fulfilled his duty to his Motherland. Today Lyubov Vasilyevna is trying to ensure that the graves of all soldiers who died not only in Chechnya, but also in Afghanistan and other “hot spots” are given the status of military graves. After all, if close relatives die, then the grave of a warrior who gave his life while performing his military duty becomes “ownerless” and may disappear...

It is common to endure a cold and callous attitude from military and civilian officials, but it is especially painful when words of distrust that are insulting to a soldier’s mother come from the lips of officials in robes. Thank God that Lyubov Vasilievna has met many real good shepherds over the years and understands everything perfectly. The attitude of the Orthodox people to the possible glorification of the warrior Eugene was very accurately expressed by Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov: “I have no doubt that Zhenya Rodionov is a saint. And when he is officially glorified, in 5 or 10 or 50 years, it’s not so important.” And, indeed, the people honor the feat of the warrior Eugene, for us he is a saint, and no one is going to demand his speedy glorification. We rely on the will of God and the wisdom of the hierarchy.

For the Orthodox, Zhenya Rodionov is a holy warrior-martyr, but his feat is revered by both real Muslims and people who have not yet found their way to God. The feat of a warrior who gave his life for his homeland is understandable to every person who has retained the idea of ​​honor, duty, and loyalty. All the years of liberal dominance of our youth were taught that there is nothing sacred in life, such sacred concepts as heroism, selfless service and love for one’s Fatherland were ridiculed, and the goal of life was declared to be enrichment at any cost, comfort and unbridled consumption of material goods. And in this most difficult period of Russian history, we were shown the feat of the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov, the 6th company of Pskov paratroopers, and many other heroes. Our “sworn friends” hoped that the “democratic” media managed to raise a generation from our youth that “chooses Pepsi.” They miscalculated. Not only Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova, but many Russian mothers were able to teach their sons “where the Motherland begins”, to pass on to them values ​​that “no one can take away from us in any trials.” Zhenya Rodionov, Pskov paratroopers, thousands of heroes became the heroic outpost that held the last frontier during the years of the “liberal pogrom” of Russian statehood.

« Die for your faith and fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven.”

Unfortunately, the country still has not realized the feat of our soldiers and officers, who broke the back of the enemy in two difficult and bloody wars in the Caucasus, destroying the plans international terrorism and our “sworn friends” in the dismemberment of Russia.

Zhenya Rodionov embodied the image of those boys who saved Russia in the most terrible years. Because, truly, there have been harder times, but there has never been a meaner time than the 90s. Royal alcohol, which was poisoned in a terrible dope by men who fell into despondency and despair, who suddenly found themselves without work, hundreds of factories and institutes were closed, the country was turned into one big flea market, old people at garbage cans, homeless people and street children. And above all this, from the TV screens, inhuman faces, but real demonic faces, voluptuously and subtly mock at everything that is sacred for the Russian person. The “Chubais” and their television staff of “political scientists”, “experts” and “historians” prove to the people day and night that all Russian history is a “dead-end branch” of the development of human civilization, the loser people must repent before the entire “civilized world”, renouncing from its thousand-year “totalitarian past” and finally learn to live according to the laws of the “market”. They mocked the heroes of the Great Patriotic War with particular fury - if it weren’t for these “scoops,” they would have been “drinking Bavarian beer” long ago. Young people were taught that the meaning of life was “to become such a millionaire.” What “highest values”! Everything that has been dear and sacred to Russian people for centuries is ridiculed by various Shenderovichs in countless humorous programs. What “love for the Motherland”, “sacred duty to defend the Fatherland” - all this is “totalitarian propaganda” - as Svanidze and the Posners tirelessly explain. The main value in life is green pieces of paper with a portrait of the American president. Whoever collects them the most is the master of life. And on television screens there are continuous feasts of the masters of life. At buffets, next to their hosts, the bankers, their faithful servants of “democratic” politicians, “pop stars” and “powers of thought” - journalists from MK, NTV and other “democratic” media - smile obsequiously. And this entire public unanimously, with all their hearts, hates the army and the special services, which is quite understandable. They experience an instinctive feeling of fear, they fear retribution for what they are doing to the country and the robbed people. Moreover, the Army is the embodiment of everything that is especially hateful to this public. The desire for profit at any cost is contrary to such concepts as honor, duty, service to the Fatherland. Therefore, the Army and Navy, special services and law enforcement agencies under “ new government“They destroyed it methodically and purposefully. The masters of life and their overseas patrons were confident that the younger generation “chose Pepsi”, and the officers who remained in the Armed Forces, defeated by the “democratic authorities”, in conditions when the division commander receives a salary several times less than the stall seller, not to mention different “brokers” and “dealers”, of course, will not fight. They were going to continue to calmly and leisurely cut Russia into pieces - it would be more convenient to swallow it piece by piece.

But when, through the efforts of our “sworn friends” in the Caucasus, a bloody war was unleashed, which was supposed to end with the collapse of Russia, it was boys like Zhenya Rodionov who stood up to the death and defended our Motherland. Lyubov Vasilyevna, before Zhenya was going on a business trip to the Caucasus after three months of training, tried to persuade her son to stay, saying that there were killed and wounded there, and that he could be captured. But Zhenya hugged his mother and said: “Mom, someone has to serve there, why do you think that another mother is less sorry for her son? But captivity depends on your luck.” When in the terrible winter of 1995, mothers of soldiers came to Chechnya to take their sons home, almost all the guys refused: “How can I leave my comrades!” These guys didn’t choose Pepsi, they chose their homeland.

Thanks to their dedication and military valor, the country gradually began to revive after the terrible degradation and disaster of the 90s. Thanks to the feat of those who fought in those difficult years, today we see a new Russian Army and Navy, which revive their combat power. Thanks to the feat of our soldiers and officers, the people stopped perceiving the characters of “liberal agitprop”, the regulars of all these “rains”, “echoes” and other Russophobes, broadcasting according to the instructions of the “Washington Regional Committee”, and the “Immortal Regiment” took to the streets of our cities. We will never know the names of all the soldiers who repeated Zhenya’s feat. But the Lord knows the names of all the heroes who gave their lives for the Fatherland, who laid down their souls for their friends. Therefore, when Orthodox people talk about the possibility of canonizing Zhenya Rodionov, they propose to glorify “the warrior Eugene and those like him who suffered.” All of them fulfilled the sacred covenant of St. Philaret of Moscow:

“Do not be afraid of danger, striving for the truth: it is better to die for it than to survive it.

Redeem with blood for your descendants the blessings that your ancestors bought for you with their blood.

Avoiding death for the honor of faith and for the freedom of the fatherland, you will die a criminal or a slave;

die for the faith and the fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven.”

St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow

The Kingdom of Heaven and eternal memory to all the soldiers who gave their lives defending the Fatherland!

May 23 marks twenty years since the martyrdom of the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov, who was beheaded Chechen militants for refusing to remove the cross. For secular people, he is a real hero, an example for those who thirst for heroism and truth. And among believers his veneration is growing as a martyr who accepted death for Orthodoxy. Members of the Izborsk Club, an influential political platform, turned to Patriarch Kirill with a request to canonize the Russian soldier.

“In our opinion, the figure of the warrior-martyr Yevgeny Rodionov is an example of heroism and asceticism, martyrdom for the Faith and the Fatherland, which is so necessary for our people, especially the younger generation,” says the address to His Holiness.

Opening the evening in memory of Yevgeny Rodionov, first deputy chairman of the Izborsk Club Oleg Rozanov said:

The heroic line in our history has never been interrupted - neither in the tsarist period, nor in the Soviet, nor in new Russia. The last feat, when the senior lieutenant caused fire on himself (Alexander Prokhorenko, who died in Syria, was posthumously awarded the Star of the Hero of Russia. - "Culture"), is evidence of this.

Parallels between these years and the 90s, when Yevgeny Rodionov died, are, of course, appropriate, but it is obvious that times have changed. Now the Russian army enjoys much more respect in society than it did then. Poet and actor Vlad Malenko recalled how the Chechen campaign was defamed in the liberal media:

Soldiers given to the slaughter, betrayed by politicians, surrounded by the ridicule of the glamorous press, had it hundreds of times harder than the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. Behind the soldiers of that war was a powerful state. Behind these boys there was nothing but poor mothers and the smoking ruins of a dilapidated state. What motivated Private Rodionov? What was he thinking about last minute his short life? In the balance, on the one hand, there was a well-fed life, full of pleasures, which is imposed by the ideology of consumption. On the other bowl is a fierce death in a damp basement of the Caucasian village of Bamut with a tin cross on his neck. The choice of Evgeniy Rodionov is the meaning of the Christian faith in its pure form.

On January 13, 1996, private border guard Yevgeny Rodionov, together with three comrades, took up his post. During the inspection of the ambulance, which, as it turned out, was transporting militants (including field commander Ruslan Khaikhoroev) and weapons, our soldiers were captured. At first, the command even suspected the guys of desertion; they were looked for at their home addresses, and only much later did reliable information come about what happened during the search of the car. Malenko told in detail the story of the death of a Russian warrior. The circumstances of the execution are known from the words of Khaikhoroev himself, who was killed in 1999; it is believed that he became the direct executioner. In the presence of a representative of the OSCE mission, Khaikhoroev stated: “The soldier had a choice. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to take off his cross.” After three months of torture, his head was sawed off.

The story of Evgeniy is also the story of his mother Lyubov Vasilievna. In order to go to Chechnya and find her son’s body, she sold her apartment. The body was given to her - without a head, but with a cross on the neck. Then there was a return for his son’s head, a funeral, the death of his husband, new trips to Chechnya - with food and warm clothes for the soldiers.

For 20 years, icons with the face of the warrior-martyr Yevgeny Rodionov have appeared throughout our country and abroad,” Malenko said. - He is revered in everything Orthodox world. In Bamut itself, where Evgeniy died, residents take care of the cross standing at the place of execution. Over the years, many films, monuments, paintings, songs and poems have been born in which Eugene’s feat is glorified.

The well-known Orthodox publicist Viktor Saulkin noted that those who executed the soldier “are not Muslims, but Satanists.”

Our soldiers are now fighting the same monsters who slaughter Muslims, Alawites and Christians in Syria,” he said. - Zhenya Rodionov and his comrades resisted precisely the first attempt of the Satanists to create a pseudo-Islamic caliphate in our Caucasus. Both senior lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko and Zhenya Rodionov are heroes of Russia. The army in the country is being revived thanks to those who fought in the 90s.

Evgeny Rodionov was born in the village of Chibirley near Kuznetsk. Now in this city there is a school named after him. According to the mayor of Kuznetsk Sergei Zlatogorsky, the feat of a fellow countryman has enormous educational significance. “We have no problems with conscription, no one excuses themselves from serving in the army,” the mayor stated.

The hero was buried on the territory of “new Moscow”, near the village of Satino-Russkoye.

His grave should become a place of military glory,” said politician Yevgeny Tarlo and announced that he was building a chapel for Yevgeny Rodionov in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Concluding the evening, the head of the Association of Orthodox Experts, Kirill Frolov, emphasized: “It is very important that Evgeniy Rodionov is glorified as soon as possible. The time has come. The modern saint is a model for all our youth.”

(from the author of the site: while collecting information about Evgeniy, it was very difficult to keep my thoughts and emotions in concentration. I, a 30-year-old mentally healthy man constantly “overcame emotions.” Sorry, but that’s why I’m posting the material episode by episode – in chunks). Evgeniy Rodionov is a private in the Russian Border Troops. Died in the first Chechen campaign. After 100 days of captivity, he was beheaded (alive, with a knife) by militants on May 23, 1996 (on his birthday) for refusing to remove his pectoral cross and convert to Islam….

Where was Evgeniy Rodionov born?

...Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsk district Penza region. In more than a year, Evgeniy was baptized, but did not wear a cross, and only in 1988 (or 1989) did his grandmother take Evgeniy to church, where he was given a cross. Evgeny Rodionov began to wear the cross without taking it off. I threaded a thick, strong rope - “it’s more reliable this way.”

Mom was embarrassed: “They will laugh at you at school.” “Let it be, I decided so, and so it will be.”

Evgeniy Rodionov military service

...After the training unit, on June 25, 1995, he was drafted into the army and served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd border outpost of the 3rd motorized maneuver group of the 479 Special Purpose Border Detachment (military unit 3807, disbanded in 1998) of the modern Red Banner Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for Kaliningrad region on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya. He took the military oath on July 10, 1995. On January 13, 1996, he was sent on a six-month business trip under the command of the Nazran border detachment ( military unit No. 2094), where, after serving for one month, he was captured.
Zhenya was very proud that he was a border guard, that he was busy with real work that the Motherland needed. At that last meeting, Zhenya told his mother: “Everyone from our unit is sent to hot spots, and I have already written a report...” Seeing how pale his mother turned, he tried to calm her down: “No one has ever escaped fate. I can go out onto the road and a car will kill me... But captivity... Captivity - it depends on your luck.”

How did Yevgeny Rodionov get captured?

...On February 13, 1996, together with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, he took up a post on the Chechnya-Ingushetia section of the road. At night, a minibus with the inscription “ ambulance" From there, fifteen healthy strongmen, armed to the teeth, jumped out under the control of the brigadier general of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ruslan Khaikhoroev. The boys did not give up without a fight. There were traces of blood on the asphalt. Evgeniy’s colleagues, who were literally 200 meters from the road, clearly heard the cry: “HELP!!!” But for some reason all this did not make any impression on them. Many were asleep! After discovering their disappearance from the post, the soldiers were initially declared deserters. Police officers came to Rodionov’s mother’s house to look for her son after his disappearance. The version that the soldiers were captured was accepted after a detailed examination of the scene and the discovery of traces of blood and struggle.

Evgeniy Rodionov did not film.

...From the first day of the 100-day captivity, when they saw the Cross on Zhenya’s neck, the bandits tried to “break” him and force him to accept their faith. They wanted to force him to torture and kill soldiers like him - boys. Evgeny categorically refused.

He was beaten. They kept saying: “Take off the Cross and you will live!!!” And it's not empty words. The gang leaders themselves later assured Lyubov Vasilyevna (Evgeniy’s mother, who traveled throughout Chechnya during the war in search of her son after his disappearance): “If your son had become one of us, we would not have offended him.” Khaikhoroev invited the exhausted boys to convert to Islam and continue to fight on the side of the militants. All the prisoners refused. Evgeniy did not remove his pectoral cross, which was what the killers demanded.

Execution of Yevgeny Rodionov

…. near the village of Bamut, Chechnya. On May 23, 1996, Evgeniy just turned 19. He, along with the rest of the soldiers, was taken to the forest near Bamut. First they killed his friends, those with whom he was on his last border duty. Then for the last time they suggested: “Take off the Cross! We swear by Allah, you will live!!!” Evgeniy didn’t take it off. And then he was executed in cold blood - his head was cut off while he was alive - but they did not dare remove the Cross. Ruslan Khaikhoroev confessed to the murder.

In the presence of a foreign OSCE representative, he said: “...He had a choice to stay alive. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to take off the cross. I tried to escape...”... Soon after the capture, Evgeniy’s mother,

Mother of Evgeniy Rodionov

Lyubov Vasilyevna came to Chechnya in search of her son, who was believed to be a deserter. His commander informed her that he was a prisoner of war, but showed no concern for his fate. She contacted Basayev, who promised her to find her son in front of everyone, but when she left the village, Basayev’s brother caught up with her and brutally beat her half to death, breaking her spine. In the end, she was forced to pay the militants money to find out the burial place of her son. Evgeniy’s mother identified Evgeniy’s body by his cross. Later, the identification results were confirmed by an examination. Eugene's cross was found in the grave on his headless body, and later Eugene's mother gave it to the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, where it was kept in the altar for several years.

Where is Evgeniy Rodionov buried?

... Evgeny Rodionov was buried near the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsk district, Moscow region, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ. However, the soldier's mother will again go to her son's killer and say: "Bring back your son's head." He will laugh and leave, and after a while he will bring her several pieces of the skull. The superstitious mountaineer was afraid of him and the dead man and therefore smashed his severed head with the butt of a machine gun so that he would not pursue him in the next world......In the most different parts Incredible things began to happen in Russia. Back in 1997, I visited the then new rehabilitation Orthodox orphanage. There, one of the tramp girls told me about a certain soldier - “so tall, in a red cloak-tent”, who “called himself Eugene, took me by the hand and led me to church.” I was still surprised, there don’t seem to be red cloaks, then I gasped: “Yes, this is a martyr’s cloak!” ….More to come. In many churches there were stories about the “Divine warrior in a fiery cloak”, helping captured soldiers in Chechnya find the path to freedom, showing them mines and tripwires... In the Burdenko hospital, wounded soldiers claimed that they knew a certain soldier Evgeniy, who helps them, “especially when pain sets in”... Many swear that they saw it on the icon when they were on an excursion to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Moreover, the prisoners also know the “warrior in the red cape.” "He helps the weak, lifts up the broken..."

...In 1997, by order of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, with the blessing of His Holiness Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the book “New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene” was published. And immediately a report came from priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk that

“the photograph on the cover of the book MYRRHINGS...

Miro is light in color, with a slight pine scent.” I myself felt the same unique tart aroma when, in the house of Lyubov Vasilievna, I venerated the icon of her son, Saint Warrior Eugene...

...They put a cross on the grave. The wooden one is the tallest in our entire village cemetery. The inscription was made: “Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce the Cross.” People slip notes between the stones near the grave...
….Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic: “My opinion about the death of soldier Rodionov, who was killed by bandits demanding to change his faith, is the heroic act of one person and the vile abomination of those who killed him.”

!For many, Eugene has become a symbol of courage, honor and loyalty.!

Prayer to the martyr Eugene (Archpriest Valentin Sidorov composed a service to the martyr warrior Eugene):

Passion-bearing Russian, warrior Eugene!
Graciously accept our prayers offered to you with love and gratitude before your holy icon.
Hear us, the weak and infirm, who worship your most luminous image with faith and love.
Your fiery love for the Lord, loyalty to Him alone, your fearlessness in the face of torment gave you eternal life.
You did not take the Cross off your chest for the sake of sowing temporary life.
Your cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation.
Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, who pray to you with tears.

Prayer to the martyr Evgeniy Rodionov, compiled by Hieromonk Varlaam (Yakunin) from the Altai Republic. Kontakion, tone 4:

You appeared to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ’s patience even to death, you were not afraid of the Agarian torment, and you did not deny the Cross of the Lord, taking death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this reason we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray ever for us, O sufferer.

In dozens of churches there are portraits of Eugene (the portrait-icon on the altar door in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in the Znamenka estate near Peterhof was located around 2000 and was removed for an unknown reason around 2010-11; in Altai - in Aktash, Novoaltaisk , Zarinsk, etc.). Icons of the warrior Eugene the Russian are also painted in Serbia. In Ukraine, the priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk had the image of Yevgeny Rodionov streaming myrrh.

Warrior Yevgeny Rodionov was refused canonization

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church doubt the possibility of canonizing private Yevgeny Rodionov, who was beheaded by militants in Chechen captivity for refusing to remove his pectoral cross and convert to Islam. “There is no documentary information about the circumstances of the person’s death. All the stories that exist in expanded or condensed form are just people’s ideas on this topic,” said Archpriest Maxim Maximov, secretary of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, in an interview published on January 14, 2010 in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

The reasons for the refusal of canonization are the lack of documentary evidence of the fact of the martyrdom of this person. For canonization, according to Fr. Maxim Maximov, responsible witnesses to the death of a soldier are needed, and they were killed. Currently, the only living witness who can talk about the soldier's death is his mother, but she was not present at his death, "therefore, she can be called a conditional witness."

“Just as you are asking me questions now, I asked her: “How do you know that my son accepted death in this way?” She said that this is a common, typological situation with all Russian soldiers who were captured and killed. But the Church cannot rely on typological evidence,” notes the secretary of the canonization commission. In his opinion, this is how the question of canonizing thousands of soldiers killed in Chechnya can be raised. “Why not, if the question is typological? Or will you assure me that all soldiers are Christians and know what they are dying for?? - the priest asks a question.

Let us recall that about five years ago the mother of the warrior martyr Evgenia Rodionova, Lyubov Vasilievna ( see illustration.) shared her sorrows with the editor-in-chief of Russian Messenger Alexei Senin: “The homeland, whose borders my son defended in Chechnya (and Zhenya was a border guard), did not accept his body kindly. My son and I lived in the Moscow region, in the Podolsk region, in the village of Kurilovo. Its residents are buried in the administrative cemetery near the Church of the Ascension of the Lord. The young priest there, Fr. Alexander Filippov, who had recently been a professional massage therapist, refused to perform my son’s funeral service without payment. The neighbors took pity on us (I had no money at all after Chechnya), paid him 300 rubles, and only then did he perform the funeral ceremony. Subsequently, his brother died, who is now buried two meters from the doors of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, next to the clergy of this temple. My relationship with this priest did not work out. He hates me for my directness, for the fact that people from all over Russia come and come to Zhenya’s grave, from Far East to the Baltic states, from the former Soviet republics - Ukraine, Kazakhstan and from distant countries - America, Germany, France ( see illustration.). Since 1997, he has repeatedly complained to me that I invite priests to serve a memorial service at a grave without consulting with him. He is annoyed that he remains aloof from the commemoration of the murdered soldier. They come day and night, priests and military men, generals, and a lot of children, often whole classes. They almost never go to the temple, because it is always closed except Sunday. I feel pain for the Church, which is being humiliated by unworthy ministers. I know plenty of examples of this, which I deeply regret”:http://expertmus.livejournal.com/48573.h tml

For reference: Private military unit 2038 of the Nazran border detachment Evgeniy Rodionov, born in 1977. On February 13, 1996, together with Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, he was sent to be on duty at the checkpoint, 200 m from the outpost, which was an ordinary booth without light, without communications, without any fire support... While they were on duty at the combat post, an ambulance driven by Brigadier General Ruslan Khaikhoroev, in which weapons were transported, was stopped. During an attempt to search, the soldiers were captured. Officers from the Kaliningrad region. We heard the screams of soldiers calling for help, but did not dare to leave the outpost. They reported to the command that “the soldiers deserted from the unit”... Already on February 16, Lyubov Rodionova received a telegram that her son, Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Rodionov, “left the unit without permission, and the command asks her to take measures to return his son to service.” The telegram was sent when the militants had already begun to torture captured Yevgeny Rodionov and his fellow soldiers: they forced one prisoner to torture another, hung him on a rack, and starved him to death. The tormentors forced me to describe all this in letters home so that my parents could quickly collect the necessary amount for the ransom. Evgeniy flatly refused to write, saying that they had nowhere to raise money, and that his mother’s heart was sick and might not be able to withstand such news. Meanwhile federal troops came close to Bamut, and the day before its surrender it was decided to do away with the prisoners. On May 23, 1996, Evgeny Rodionov and his colleagues were asked to remove their pectoral cross and convert to Islam. After their refusal, Evgeniy’s head was cut off and the rest were shot. Mother of Evgeniy Rodionov, 9 months. who was looking for her son, the militants handed over a videotape recording his execution.

To date, about 160 icons dedicated to the warrior-martyr Eugene have been painted, which are already in 26 churches in Russia. In 1997, with blessing His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' published the book “The New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene.” The book of life “The Tale of the Soldier” was written and published by the rector of the Holy Spiritual Church in the village. Free Novomoskovsk deanery priest Georgy Khanov (Dnepropetrovsk). Hegumen Kirill, rector of the Murom Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery The Vladimir diocese also petitioned for canonization. On August 10, 2002, a regimental church was consecrated in honor of the warrior Evgeniy Melitinsky on the territory of the Altai border detachment, in Aktash, whose rector Fr. Varlaam painted the first icon of “Warrior Eugene, killed in Chechnya.” It was in this temple of the Altai border guards that one of the first miracles occurred. November 20, 2002, as reported by Fr. Varlaam, “one of the soldiers, private Andrei Zyablitsky, a believer, who read the biography of Yevgeny Rodionov and was imbued with special love for his personality, was holding in his hands a temple icon with the image of St. Martyr Eugene the Warrior. The prayer service and religious procession were filmed - and right during filming procession the icon in the soldier’s hands began to bleed. Myrrh flowed from the lower crossbar of the cross in the hands of the warrior.” On October 21, 2008, the warrior Evgeniy Rodionov was glorified among the martyrs as a locally revered saint of the Astrakhan-Enotaevsk diocese.

In an interview with the Russky Vestnik newspaper, Evgenia’s mother reported on her meeting with Fr. Maxim Maximov in the spring of 2003: “The form of this conversation resembled an interrogation. A young man, old enough to be my son, asked me about the words with which my son died, did he praise the Lord or curse his killers? And are there any witnesses to this? I answer: yes. Let Father Maxim, if he doesn't chicken out , goes to Chechnya to visit the militants, and the addresses are known - Bamut, Achkhoy-Martan, and asks them. My son, dying, did not think about whether he would be canonized or not...”

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, in a conversation on Radio Radonezh on February 8, 2004, noted in this regard: “The interview of priest Maxim Maximov about the canonization of the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov, which he gives to the executive editor of the Church Bulletin, to put it mildly, causes me bewilderment. One gets the impression that the author is convinced that he is allowed to say whatever he wants on behalf of the Church only because he is the secretary of the Synodal Commission for Canonization. In fact, one cannot help but be amazed by the level of reasoning of the interlocutors. Priest Maxim Maximov argues that the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov cannot be called a new martyr, firstly, because, I quote: “we must definitely state that the era of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia, no matter how we stretch it out, has already ended. We can draw the line at the 1970s, or, in extreme cases, at the 1980s, when the last confessors who left the camps departed for another world. When Evgeniy Rodionov is ranked among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia, an obvious forgery occurs: in modern history This is a completely different period for Russia.” It turns out that the persecution of the Church is over, there will be no more new martyrs.

By the way, there can be no talk of glorifying, say, the murdered Optina monks, or Priest Igor Prozin, who was killed by a Wahhabi, or Archpriest Anatoly Chistousov, who was martyred in Chechnya. The book of the Apocalypse is completely closed, a fundamentally new time has come! Obviously, the era of the thousand-year kingdom... I don’t want to believe that Fr. Maxim professes such an outright heresy. It seems like he doesn't understand what he's writing! But besides this, a simpler question arises: does the secretary of the canonization commission really not know what every seminarian knows? We adopted the very name “new martyrs” from the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in connection with the suffering of Greek and Serbian Christians in the Balkans, who were killed only because they refused to blaspheme the faith in Christ and accept Mohammedanism (by the way, as we see , literally the same thing that happened to the warrior-new martyr Eugene!). If you follow the logic of Fr. Maxim, then our new Russian martyrs and confessors cannot be called such.”

By the way, during the canonization of the new martyrs in the same commission of the Russian Orthodox Church, the question of their miracles was not even raised...