St. Maximos' Hut

This weekend we commemorated the martyrs of the Bolshevik yoke and I thought I'd post a few of the troparia for the martyrs included in Saturday's Vespers. It's worth remembering, as Americans often fail to do, how devastating communism was for so many millions. We need to remember, so we can keep up the moral critique of policies that lead to such barbarism.

Here's some of the troparia:

The Sacred and great Council of all Russia
Heard of the dreadful report
Of the persecutions raised against the Church of God;
And all its members joined in one conciliar thought:
Appointing prayers for the persecuted and slain Confessors and Martyrs
On the day of the suffering and death
Of the Holy Metropolitan Vladimir.
He that today reasons with the Church knows
The days of the repose
Of those who have departed to God amidst suffering
Are called the days of their birth.
Wherefore let us celebrate this Feast
As the nativity of the new Passion-bearers of Russia!
With fervent supplication, O Brethren,
Let us now begin to chant hymns to the new favorites of God;
For, cleansed through fearsome torments,
They are revealed as true Branches of the true Vine of Christ,
Abundantly watered with the sweetness of Grace.
Set forth before us in the fragrance of their Holiness
And edified by their struggle
With compuction let us also offer to God the fruit of repentance!
O mountains of Kiev,
Which were blest by the cross of the Apostle Andrew,
Praise now the beginning of the dread baptism
Wherewith the land of Russia has been baptized anew;
For where grace shone forth upon the Russian people
Through water and the Spirit
Unto the opening of the Kingdom of God,
There it was fitting for this renewal to begin,
Through the blood of the first-slain among the Russian Hierarchs,
The namesake of the Enlightener of the Russian land;
For this new Vladimir, led forth from his vineyard,
Through the gates of the great Lavra of the Caves,
Was granted the crown of Stephen,
Forgiving and blessing them that slew him
As meek, yet a powerful intercessor for our souls!
Lamentation and mournful songs of woe:
Lo! The scroll of Ezekiel which filled your soul to overflowing,
O Tikhon our Patriarch!
May your voice be heard even now, saying:
O Brethren, Archpastors and Pastors,
Summon your children to the defense of the Orthodox Church!
May they that destroy the churches of God hearken to your fiery discourse:
If you call yourselves Christians
We anathematize you by the authority given us by God!
O dread and everlasting excommunication!
Behold an anathema lifted by no one
Behold the boldness of the Patriarch!
O wondrous army of the new athletes of Russia!
Who is able to glorify you worthily?
Truly blest is the land which has been watered by your blood;
And its cities and villages are mystically hallowed,
Having received your precious relics
Often without hymnody of the Church or honorable burial.
Yet pray, O you Saints, for the land of Russia
And for all who honor you!

There's a brief account of St. Tikhon here. He has special meaning for me, since he was Archbishop in America before returning to Russia in 1917. (He even consecrated at least one church in Ohio.) We've got a very nice icon of St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess and New Martyr (about whom you can read here) at St. Innocent and I find her an especially comforting saint.