Tashkent, Uzbekistan, September 29, 2017
Photo: foma.ru Materials are currently being prepared in the Tashkent Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church for the canonization of twelve New Martyrs who suffered in Uzbekistan at the hands of the godless Bolsheviks, reports Interfax-Religion.
“They are mainly Russians, namely those who, in the years of the Soviet authorities, underwent persecutions, sufferings, martyrdom, and some were even shot. We are gathering materials on their lives to present to the Russian Orthodox Church’s commission for canonization,” stated Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan in an interview with Interfax-Religion on Thursday, the day before His Holiness Patriarch Kirill was to arrive in the republic.
The hierarch also spoke of some interesting places of pilgrimage in Uzbekistan: the spring of St. John the Much-Suffering in Buhakra, which he is said to have called forth to alleviate the people’s suffering while passing through the city, and a particle of the relics of the Prophet Daniel which are kept in Samarkand, brought there by the famous military leader Tamerlane.
Responding to a question about how the Orthodox live in Uzbekistan, Met. Vikenty noted that “the people live, they rejoice in life; there are good climatic conditions here.”
Speaking of the situation with religious extremism in Uzbekistan, the bishop stressed that “the authorities are very serious about these displays,” and “strongly fight against them.”
