The New Martyrs

    The New 20th Century Martyrs of the Russian Church, killed by Communists, in the Icon of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

    In 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered about 210,000 members of the clergy (100,000 monks and more than 110,000 diocesan priests). More than 130,000 of them were shot in the period between 1917 and 1941, during the violent persecutions through which the communist regime tried to wipe out the Christian faith in the Soviet Union.

    As many as 250 of the bishops present in Russia in 1917 were shot. The other ones survived in prisons or concentration camps, or in any case under severely restrictive conditions. In 1941 there were only four free bishops.

    The persecution hit Catholics as well. In 1917 there lived in Russia about two million Catholics who could count on about one thousand priests, 600 churches and as many chapels, two seminaries and one theological university faculty. In 1940 there remained only two priests and two churches, that had escaped destruction only because they belonged to the French embassy. Just in the two 1937–1938-year period about 120 catholic priests were shot.

    The total number of people killed by the communist regime for political reason was quantified in twenty million (cfr Il Libro Nero del Comunismo).

    The icon of the New Martyrs of the 20th Century, painted after the August 2000 canonization by the Russian Orthodox Church of the Romanov family and 850 martyrs of the Christian faith killed under the communist regime, provides an iconographic synthesis of the persecution.

    This online presentation was elaborated by the Italian cultural center “Gli Scritti” based on an explanation booklet that can be found in the reconstructed Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

    Below, I provided a numbered subdivision of the icon. I numbered the individual description of the panels of the large icon. You should be able to identify the panels described in the post by the numbers of the individual descriptions. There will also be a picture of the panel associated to the comment.

    The central section of the icon (1)

    High, against the gold background, there is the title of the icon, in the 15th century style.

    The new saints are represented with the background of the Moscow Church of Christ the Savior. This church was chosen because it is the symbol of the past suffering and the resurgence of the Russian church in our times. (The church was torn down by the Soviets in 1931, and rebuilt and consecrated in 2000). In front of the church we see the altar covered with a red mensal tablecloth, which is the color of Easter. The red tablecloth is the symbol of the eternal paschal joy, of the victory against hell and death, and of the joyful exultance in heaven where all the martyrs are.

    The Church of Christ the Savior in the icon is also the symbol of the universal church and of the Kingdom of God.

    The Bible on the altar, open on the words of Matthew 10,28: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” represents the union between the church and the altar.

    Above the altar there stands the great cross, the main symbol of the painting, that indicates the martyrdom suffered by all those represented in the icon, and, at the same time, it represents the victory of the church over sin through the same cross of Christ. The cross embraces all the represented people horizontally and vertically. The vertical axis coincides with the vertical element of the cross and presents, at its base, the martyrs of the royal family, with czar Nicholas 2nd in the center. The royal family is dressed in the traditional, Byzantine style, royal garments, which represents the tight union between Russia and “Byzantium.”

    The royal martyrs are under the hierarchical authority of the church, through which they receive the blessing from God and the power to guide the people. At the top of the church hierarchy there are the Patriarch Tikhon and Saint Peter Polanskiy. The Patriarch Tikhon, the head of the church, stands on the left and not the right, because in the icon the point of view of the viewer does not matter: the scene must be viewed from its spiritual center, that is, the altar.

    Under the heads of the Church hierarchy there is everybody else: the holy martyr priests, the monks, and the laymen who, together, represent the unity and the complementarity of the whole church.

    Deisis (2)

    The Deisis (in the top band of the icon) represents the Heavenly Church; therefore, Christ on the throne is in the center of it. Jesus keeps his hands on the Gospel open on the words of John 8,12: “I am the light of the world.” The image of Jesus Christ completes the vertical line of the cross, (above the central section we just described): from the martyrs of the royal family up through the cross – then the altar – and up through the dome of the temple. Therefore, the figure of Christ occupies the main place in the icon, manifesting the ultimate sense of martyrdom, that is, the sequel on the way of the cross of Christ.

    In the Deisis, after the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and the apostles Peter and Paul there follow several saints of the Russian Church from the 10th to the 19th century. There are, in fact, the apostle Andrew and Prince Vladimir the Great. There follow the four saints hierarchs of the Russian Church: Petr, Aleksij, Iona, Filipp, then Hermogenes and Job, and the Beatified Princes Boris and Gleb, Saint Sergius of Radonezh, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint John of Kronstadt “The Righteous,” and Saint Ambrose of Optina. The sequence of the saints establishes the linkage between the saints of the new era and their predecessors.

    The Icons around the central image

    The right vertical band of the large icon depicts the martyrdoms of the individual saints. The group martyrdoms, instead, are represented in the left vertical band. The soldiers were depicted in mud-colored uniforms to show their negative association with demonic forces. Moreover, the figures of the soldiers are not graphically elaborate to underline the fact that they were blind instruments in the hands of demons, in the fight against the Church.

    Let us present the smaller icons, in an anti-clockwise direction, beginning with the ones high above on the left.

    The Solovetsky Islands (3)

    The monastery of the Solovetsky Islands (or Solovki) is famous in Orthodoxy precisely because there lived many Christians who were martyred. Two islands of the archipelago, The Bolshoy Solovetsky Island and the Anzersky Island are depicted in the side icon. In the middle, there is the Monastery of the Transfiguration, which became a detention place.

In the icon we can see the church of the monastery, in which the martyrs, who can be seen behind bars, were imprisoned. The shooting by firing squad of the monks in front of the monastery is represented close-up. The saints have an aureole but are not named, because they were shot en masse.

Shootings and murders were common on the islands. The most terrible place in the archipelago was Sekira Hill (above, left). The stairway with 365 steps (a symbolic number) descends from the top of the hill. The stairway was employed as a means of execution: a weight was tied to the person who was then thrown down the stairs. The Virgin Mary had appeared to Saint Iona (one of the Solovki Saints) and She had asked him to build the monastery (visible on the right) to honor the Passion of Her Son. Two hundred years later, that would become a place of martyrdom for Christ.

Under the church of the smaller island there is the body of Archbishop Saint Petr Zverev, one the most beloved of Anzersky Island, who was buried there. The branches of the tree represented in the icon are in the perfect shape of the Cross, symbolizing that Christ himself planted it in honor of His martyrs.

    The sentencing to death of Saint Benjamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov and the others who suffered martyrdom with him. (4)

    In 1922, Saint Benjamin and a great part of his clergy were put on trial under the false charge of resisting the confiscation of the church properties. On the night between the 12th and the 13th of August, they were sentenced to death.

    In ancient tradition, the judges were represented sitting, while the people being sentenced were painted standing up. In this icon it is the opposite. The convicted men and the judges are shown in a three-quarter view, so they are facing one another and the observer. As if affirming the falsity of the judgement and the strength of martyrdom, the judge holds the sentence in his hands, but in it there are only the names of the saints, because the sentence was baseless. In answer to the false condemnation, Saint Benjamin blesses the judges. The prison of Petrograd is depicted behind the wall.

    The occupation of one of the greatest Russian sanctuaries, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, and the stealing of the relic of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. (5)

    In 1920, the Lavra (or monastery) of Saint Sergius was forcibly shut down, and the holy relics were stolen and taken to a museum. In the icon, there is depicted the monastery’s main gate, blocked by a soldier who is beating the monks, chasing them away. In the middle – inside the monastery – there is the bell tower without the bells, which indicates that the church was occupied and desecrated. The figure of Saint Sergius, as the great protector of the Russian people, is particularly linked to the time of great trials and persecutions.

    The Captivity of the Saint Patriarch Tikhon in the Donskoy Monastery. (6)

    Saint Tikhon Patriarch, the first of the great holy bishops of the Russian Church was a zealous shepherd of his flock. In the side icon, we can see the people, who represents all Russia, awaiting the blessing from the saint below the prison’s walls. Saint Tikhon blesses and instructs his people, therefore continuing his mission. The church depicted in the icon represents the entire church, as in the other pictures.

    The shooting of the “Righteous Ones” in Butov, near Moscow, in the 1930s. (7)

    The Butov firing range is one of the most tragic places in 20th century Russian history. Many people, priests and laymen, were killed in it, during the 1930s. According to some accounts, as many as three-hundred and up to four-hundred people a day. About 300,000 victims were buried in mass graves.

    The condemned people were taken there at night and killed and buried in the already prepared mass graves. In the icon, there are two groups of martyrs, the first ones are already dead, and the other ones are being led to the firing squad. The martyrs are nameless, because that symbolizes the considerable number of martyred people whose identity is unknown. In the center of the image there are three people: the old man, dressed in white, is a priest who is blessing the soldiers who are about to shoot him. On the left there are more “righteous ones” who are being led to die, with their hands tied. The colors of their clothes signify their sanctity and symbolize the passage to eternal life.

    The composition of the icon is very similar to the Solovki islands’ one. All the small icons don’t have very defined borders a flow one into the other, as a symbol of the Heavenly City where there’s neither place nor space.

    Shooting of the participants to the Astrakhan Cross procession. (8)

    This ancillary icon represents one of the processions with the cross, with which many Christians showed their faith to the new Communist regime. The composition of the picture presents the direct clash of two forces. On the left, there is the procession that walks in front of the church; from the right we see the approaching soldiers who are shooting at the faithful. The people who are heading the procession are wearing the deaconate vestments, which characterizes their ministry, and one of them is carrying the cross. In the middle there is Bishop Mitrofan, who was shot by a firing squad on June 23, 1919. The “righteous ones” are represented in red, symbol of the strength of their faith.

    The Holy death of Vladimir (Basil Nikiforovich Bogoyavlensky), Metropolitan of Kiev, on January 25, 1918. (9)

    The Metropolitan Vladimir was the first Russian bishop to be martyred by the Bolsheviks. He fought in Kiev against the anticlerical and nationalist movements, and against the division among the Ukrainian clergy. The saint was seized in a monastery in Kiev (precisely the Lavra of Pechersk). Before dying, Saint Vladimir blessed his murderers.

    But the moment of the executions is not represented in the icon. The Saint is shown twice: first when he’s taken from his residence and then when his body was found by the monks. The theme of the icon is: through his martyrdom Saint Vladimir became “Christlike.”

    An unknown woman with her children, and the arrest of a priest during the divine liturgy. (10)

    Many women died as martyrs in the concentration camps and in the prisons, during the time of persecution. The ones who remained free assisted and supported the priests and passed their nights in front of the prisons’ gates to give the necessary to the prisoners. They kept going to church, they educated their children in the faith and, thanks to their perseverance, the Orthodox Church was able to preserve the faith through such tough times. The woman represented in the icon is not afraid of the soldiers, because she believes in the grace and in the help of God.

    During the early years of the Revolution, there were many cases in which the persecutors entered the churches, even during the liturgy, to arrest or kill the celebrants. That is represented in the right section of the icon: in the small church, like many other churches in Russia, the soldiers are breaking in while the priest is celebrating Mass. One the soldiers ties the priest’s hands; the other takes the sacred objects from the altar. The face of the priest resembles the face of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. The Church put all her assets to the service of the poor and the hungry, all the same, the chalices and the other precious objects were used as a pretext for the persecution.

    The stripping of the Sarov Residence and the stealing of the mortal remains of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. (11)

    The “wilderness” of Sarov, made famous by the feats of Saint Seraphim in the 20th century, is a place particularly dear to the Orthodox people and all the Russian Church. The Sarov monastery was shut down by force in 1927, and the holy relics of Saint Seraphim were stolen. The icon depicts the shape of the monastery. Against the background of the church’s bell tower, two soldiers are taking away the relics of the saint, which would end up in the Leningrad Museum of Atheism, while on the side a soldier is chasing away the monks who remained in the monastery.

    The Martyrdom of Kirill, Metropolitan of Kazan in Chimkent, November 7 (20), 1937. (12)

    The Saint Martyr Kirill – a minister of the Church, an erudite theologian, loving and wise shepherd, actively supported Patriarch Tikhon in his courageous opposition to the strong pressures of the atheist authorities.

    The icon illustrates his shooting by firing squad by the enemies of the church. The saint is praying in front of the observer of the icon. His raised hands are solemnly stretched in the gesture of prayer and of the last blessing. The red liturgical vestments contrast with the dark green uniforms of the soldiers. The dark profile of the soldiers, with their rifles pointed at the saint, represents the overwhelming fury of the dark forces. The landscape reproduces the actual place in which the saint was martyred.

    The Martyrdom of the Russian Royal Family in Yekaterinburg, on July 4 (17),1918. (13)

    After he was forced to renounce his authority, the czar Nicholas 2nd remained always faithful to the church and the fatherland, and stated that he was ready to offer his life to God if it was necessary. The royal family, after having suffered through persecutions, was murdered in the cellar of the house where it had been imprisoned, which is represented in the icon.

    The royal family became an example of sanctity and Christian unity for the Orthodox people, and a model of a small church. The canonization of the royal family does not equate to an approval of the czar’s political behavior during the years preceding the revolution, but rather an acknowledgement of the Christian testimony offered by the family during their detention until the martyrdom.

    In the icon, the royal martyrs are depicted on the stairs of the cellar, the one down which the murderers led them. The staircase has become the stage which, majestically, elevates the martyrs towards heaven. The family is a united group, in the center of which there is the Czar Nicholas 2nd with his son Alexei in his arms. The clothes of the Czar are green, but it’s not the same green as the soldiers: it is a light green, symbol of eternity.

    The empress is dressed in white, as the early Christian martyrs. The royal couple is surrounded by the princesses: Olga, in yellow; Tatiana in red; Maria in green; Anastasia in pink. The dark background of the cellar indicates the darkness that is attempting in vain to absorb the martyrs. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. (John 1:5).

    Martyrdom in Alapayevsk on July 5 (18), 1918. (14)

    The two saints depicted in the panel, Princess Elisabeth and her handmaid Barbara, together with the princes Sergey Mikhaylovich and Vladimir Paleyem, three other princes and their servants are being martyred in a cave.

    The German Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, who had been baptized as a Protestant Christian, after marrying Prince Sergey Aleksandrovič Romanov had moved to Russia and had become an Orthodox Christian. After the assassination of her husband, she dedicated herself to charity works and her spiritual path was completed with the crown of martyrdom.

    In the icon, the holy women are dressed in white, a symbol of their being spouses of Christ, in humility and in total acceptance of the will of God. The light color of their dresses shows the contrast between them and the soldiers who are killing them. Saint Elizabeth’s dress color tends to the pink, while Barbara’s dress has shades of yellow.

    The entire composition has a light green tonality that symbolizes eternal youth. The landscape communicates silence and a great peace of the soul.

    The last words of Elizabeth were the same words of the Savior: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23: 34).

    The scene is set in a deserted place, because the murder took place outside of town. The mortal remains of Saint Elizabeth now rest in the Orthodox monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.

    Saint Andronic, Archbishop of Perm and Solokamsk and Saint Hermogenes Bishop of Tobol’sk and Siberia martyrs. (15)

    Archbishop Andronic was buried alive in the dirt and Bishop Hermogenes was thrown in the river Tura with a stone tied around his neck. Andronic had been a missionary to Japan and saint Hermogenes was a true minister of the church. Both suffered a very violent death almost at the same time; therefore, they are commemorated in the same icon; because according to Orthodox canonical tradition events are associated in the same space.

    The voluntary martyrdom of the two saints, in the name of faith in Christ, sanctified the land and the water. With their aureoles, their prayerful attitudes, their light-color festive vestments the holy martyrs accept martyrdom as if they no longer had bodies and had reached “an angelic state”.

    The city to the right is Tobol’sk, whose beauty donates a festive aspect to the icon. The beautiful city also represents the heavenly Jerusalem, while the river (which can also be viewed as the Acheron or the “river of woe”) symbolically divides the city of eternal joy from the pain of this earth.

    The suffering and the Martyrdom of the Saint Martyr Peter Polyansky, Metropolitan of Moscow and Krutitsy. (16)

    Saint Peter Polyansky was a pillar and a trues support of the Church. He was the auxiliary to Patriarch Tikhon, and as a Metropolitan he suffered extreme persecution by the Communist authorities. He was taken, for many years, from prison to prison; deported for a long period to Khe, near the Ob River, close to the Arctic Circle; and after having suffered greatly, he was finally martyred in Chelyabinsk on September 27 (October 10), 1937. That remote place was visited a few years ago by the Patriarch Alexy 2nd of Moscow.

    Saint Peter is represented twice in the icon: In the upper part, based on a picture of him that was preserved, is shown sitting in the shack at Khe. The Arctic Ocean, with floating ice, lies to his left. The death of the saint is depicted in the lower part of the icon.

    The composition represents the triumph of eternal life over death, placing the saint alive and sitting in the highest part of the image. The pink background of the earth is also a symbol of the victory of all that is eternal over all that is transitory.