A Visit to St. Mitrophan's and NM Grand-Duchess Elizabeth

(with new section added to the end of this article)
Today I visited the third church Matushka Irina had written down for me--the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh. Here is his icon, near the top of the church, facing the main street.

Can you tell that the whole top half of the church had been destroyed by the Bolsheviks, and was rebuilt in the 1990's?

This one was the most like Holy Epiphany so far, in that it has only one altar and so the shape of the church inside is cross-shaped, and larger than some with 3 altars. The altar area was newly-done in mosaics, and the ceilings and walls were all newly frescoed like a Greek monastery (also similar to Holy Epiphany's frescoes).

This is the church's last priest before the Revolution, the Holy New Hieromartyr Vladimir Medvediuk. When he was ordained a priest and sent to this church in the 20's, he zealously guided his flock against the rampant revolutionary spirit, Renovationism, and atheism that existed. The Renovationists, who supported the Bolshevik regime, were forcefully seizing churches right and left. They tried to take Fr. Vladimir's church by waiting until he had left the church. In those days--as now once again in Russia--churches were open all day, every day. But Fr. Vladimir would not give them the chance: when he left for the day, he locked the church and took the keys home with him.

Failing this way, the Renovationists then invited him to their bishop. Fr. Vladimir went.

"Hand over the keys!" cried the bishop.

"I won't give them, Vladyka, I won't give them! answered Fr. Vladimir.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you like a dog!"

"Kill me," answered the priest. "You and I will stand before the Throne of God together"

"Oh, look what a fellow we have here," said the bishop, but he didn't insist further. And the Renovationists didn't succeed in seizing the church.

In 1925 the authorities arrested him, and, showing him a far-fetched and invented accusation, they began to threaten him with imprisonment in a concentration camp. The only way he could be freed, they said, was to agree to collaborate with the OGPU. Fr. Vladimir agreed and was freed. The mission they gave him was basically regarding the locum tenens of the Patriarch, Metropolitan Peter, which he fulfilled; but the further he went the more his conscience bothered him and the more agonizing it was to endure his situation. Neither zealous serving in church nor pastoral conscienciousness could calm this burning spiritual pain. Finally Fr. Vladimir made up his mind to cease contact with the OGPU and went and confessed his sin to his spiritual father. In 1929 one of the OGPU investigators summoned him to an office in Great Lubianka and demanded an explanation. Fr. Vladimir explained that he was not going to work for them any longer. For 72 hours they tried to talk him into changing his mind, but Fr. Vladimir decisively refused, saying that it didn't matter anyway--he had already told the priest about everything in confession. On the 11th of December they arrested him for "divulging confidential information." On the 3rd of February 1930 the OGPU sentenced him to three years imprisonment in a concentration camp, which he served out in building the White Sea-Baltic Canal. In the meantime his family was evicted from their house, which is what he feared the most, but by God's providence they found refuge with another family. Fr. Vladimir was able to join them after his three years were up, but was arrested again and shot in December of 1937, and buried in a mass grave at Butovo Firing Range (Polygon). He was added to the number of the Holy New Confessors and Martyrs in the year 2000.

(Translated and/or summarized from days.pravoslavie.ru. There's more about two other New Martyrs in his Life, but I didn't have time here.)
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(signing off now but will add Part Two of today's visit later to the end of this article.... Here it is:)

On the side of the church facing the courtyard, you can see an icon of Holy New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth.

This church has a strong connection with St. Elizabeth: before the Revolution she had founded an orphanage nearby, and the church still supports orphans. It also established a Sisterhood in the name of St. Grand Duchess Elizabeth, carrying on her work: I saw quite a few women in church wearing white nursing headscarves, of the kind you would think of a nun wearing these days, with a red cross on the scarf at the forehead, and in the back, instead of being triangular and pointing downward, the scarf is cut straight across--again, like a nun's, only shorter and white. There was a poster on the church door, too, something about medical sisters (nurses). It was quite amazing to see such headgear--I hadn't seen anything like it in the United States since I visited the Catholic Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, when I was a child. The Church here in Russia appears to be very active in society. In this church there was, for example, not only boxes with slots on the top for donations for rebuilding the church and to help the sisterhood, but also a very large box smack in the middle of the narthex where you couldn't not notice it marked for orphans and homeless or poor people. There was also a box on the wall to contribute to their Orthodox radio station, "Blagovescheniye" -- "Annunciation." Among the offerings in the archives of this station, which you can download and listen to, is an interview with director Pavel Longin, talking about the film Ostrov.

It seems that there are several nearby churches that share rotating clergy and publish a common bulletin. Those who can read Russian can find out more about this very spiritually active group of parishes at http://www.blagodrevo.ru/.

Across the courtyard/garden from the church is another building, used for trapeza and clergy, and I think, church school. It's a very large brick building newly-built, and over just one place, there is a small onion-dome with a cross on top. One of the priests very kindly let me see inside, where there is a new chapel and baptistery dedicated to New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Here is her icon in the corner, behind the Cross.

As I stood looking at this beautiful iconostas, I asked the priest if the chapel we were standing in was old. He replied no, it was all newly-built. I said, "Amazing--the icons look as if they are very old." "They are," he said. "Families took them and hid them when the Revolution broke out, and so they were saved. Then, when the church was re-opened in the 1990's, the people brought them back."

There is a beautiful children's book (in English) about this very thing, called The Miracle of St. Nicholas, telling about a newly-restored church in Russia and how, after the fall of communism, the whole parish, who had been in hiding, came back, each parishioner bringing back an icon or some other precious church belonging. On this day I saw an example of it. Here is the amazon.com web page for those who would like to read it to their children:

http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Saint-Nicholas-Golden-Books/dp/1883937183

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After visiting St. Mitrophan's, I returned home. It was a long walk back to the nearest Metro station, and all in all it took me an hour and a quarter to get back home. I took a rest for a while, then was delighted to find Namesday e-mails from family, and a call from friends at home, and even one from my iconographer-friend, Maria, at the parish of St. Nicholas v Klennikakh. All those warm wishes made my day truly wonderful--thank you all!

Till next time,

Dimitra