Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, with the festive, yet sorrowful day of the New-Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, as well as the first preparatory Sunday before Great Lent!

Yesterday evening, as well as today at the hours and the Divine Liturgy, we heard the wonderful words of the troparion to the New-Martyrs. This hymn, the main prayer dedicated to today’s saints, was composed in 1981 by Archbishop Anthony of San Francisco, who, it seems to me, took the main metaphor of this prayer from the “Panegyric to the New-Martyrs of the Russian Church” by Metropolitan Anastassy, who knew many of today’s saints.

In the troparion we hear the author comparing the New-Martyrs and Confessors with a multitude of glorious flowers which blossomed in the meadow or garden of the Russian Church. They came up during the era of the fiercest persecutions that the Holy Church has ever experienced, i. e. throughout the whole of the Communist rule of Russia. In any large and wonderful garden it is impossible to count the number of flowers; likewise, the number of spiritual blooms, the holy martyrs, are innumerable. The variety of saints is also very wide. There are hierarchs, the emperor and empress, priests, monastics, simple laymen, men, women, and even children. The spiritual meadow of the Russian Church is magnificent in its variety like no earthly garden. No less amazing is that this variety of flowers is not only beautiful, but also fruitful. The new- martyrs brought forth good harvest for Christ God, that is, up until their last breath they lived according to the law of God. Therefore, the troparion continues, today we appeal to them in prayer, so that they in turn beseech Christ, Who planted them, that He free us from all godless and evil people (of course Vladyka Anthony had the Communists in mind), that He strengthen our Church (that is, grant freedom to the Church in the Soviet Union), and save our souls, for the sake of the sufferings of the New-Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th century. Wouldn’t you agree that this is a beautiful troparion?!

Ten years after this troparion was composed and the New-Martyrs were glorified, the Lord God granted this prayer and the wishes of all Orthodox people. The godless and evil Communist government in the Soviet Union fell to pieces and the Church received her freedom. That which seemed earlier impossible came to pass, perhaps because of the prayers of our new saints. It may seem that the prayerful words of the troparion of the New-Martyrs are now obsolete and have to force today, but in fact, a new time of troubles seems to be upon us. In Canada, new godless and evil people are trying to enforce a new immoral and godless ideology. Between the countries of the former empire of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas, where there was once peace, now there is war. Amongst the faithful of the Church of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon and the first new-martyr, the Holy Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, where there was once unity, there is now schism. Today, let’s fervently pray to our new-martyrs that they once again beseech their planter, Christ, that He free us from the new godless and evil people, that He grant peace to Orthodox Christians and unity to His Church.

priest Alexis