We would like to present to our readers a story of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov; 1893–1975) about how he one day nearly died from hunger in a Nazi prison.
The suffering of the forty Martyrs of Sebaste. In Taganrog, in the archbishop’s chambers hung an icon of the Forty Martyrs, suffering in the lake of Sebaste. When I was still a young hierdeacon and cell attendant to Vladyka Arseny I passed by this icon often, but didn’t give the proper veneration to these forty sufferers; I even doubted a little in their existence—maybe there were such martyrs, maybe not…
Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov) of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan. The Soviet forces were advancing on the city and the Germans began shooting the prisoners. I took the Holy Gifts in the palm of my hand and prayed before them all night. The faithful of Uman collected their gold and bought off the prison warden’s assistant. He gave his word to keep me alive; and truly, while the Germans were either carrying off the prisoners with them or shooting them, I remained alive.
When the Soviet forces arrived, Vladyka Joseph was again put in prison, this time by the Soviet authorities. It seemed very suspicious to them that he should survive a Gestapo prison. But this is another story altogether.
From The Light of Joy in a World of Sorrow: Metropolitan Joseph of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan by V. Koroleva (Moscow: Palomnik, 2004).
