2/23/2023
Natalia Vashchina
Amazingly, the Theological Academy lived in the harsh reality of militant atheism from the government, and the possibility of the priestly ordination of its students remained. In the context of the planned total extermination of clergy, it was an extremely important moment for the Orthodox Church.
She devoted her whole life to the Lord, to His service. She loved God with all her heart; Christ was the center of her worldview and her life.
Already at the time of writing the second letter to Bishop Peter, in November 1922, the question was being decided for him: Should he take a step towards his personal Golgotha, or not? And he firmly decided to follow the Lord. The love of God proved to be higher and stronger than the fear of future suffering and death itself.
He was so inconvenient for the government, his personality was so significant, and his authority in Orthodox circles was so high that he had to be dealt with once and for all, without any possibility of continuing his activities or spreading his influence.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Novoselov truly straightened the chain of his family, becoming its “compensating link”. But how high the price of this compensation is! The blood of the New Martyrs is the great price of the spiritual rebirth of Russia.
These two holy martyrs saved the Russian Orthodox Church at that time—literally, not figuratively.
In 1928, Alexei left his cell, and his feat of feigned “foolishness” for Christ’s sake began. He lived anywhere he could, wore rags, and no one knew where he slept. He began to behave strangely; his fellow villagers could not always understand what he was doing.
No one was interested in the truth. The charges were standard for that time: anti-Soviet agitation, espionage.
An incredible story happened with Fr. Leonty at that camp. What he was subjected to would have broken anyone.
