Pic – https://news.church.ua/

OCP News Service – 10/02/21

On February 7, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated the memory of the Holy Martyr Volodymyr (Epiphany), Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych, and all Holy New Martyrs and Confessors who suffered from the communist persecution of the faith in the twentieth century. On the day, Metropolitan Antony of Boryspil and Brovary, and the Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church urged faithful to pray for the Victims of Communist repression.

According to Metropolitan Antony “Historians estimate that between 1918 and the late 1930s alone, tens of thousands of Orthodox clergy of the canonical Church were shot or died in camps and exiles due to the repressive policies of the Soviet government. The names of many of them are still unknown. Only about 2,000 of them are glorified as saints.

It is symbolic that the mourning and at the same time solemn path of the new martyrs and confessors of the twentieth century began with Kyiv – the baptismal font of Kievan Rus. It was here that Metropolitan Volodymyr was murdered by the hands of Bolshevik executioners. He was the first Orthodox hierarch to receive the crown of martyrdom shortly after the Bolshevik October Revolution of 1917. This happened immediately after the capture of Kyiv by Bolshevik troops on the 7th of February (according to the new calendar) and 25th of January (according to old calendar style) in 1918.

This horrible crime became the symbolic beginning of the brutal persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church. The 70-year-old Metropolitan Volodymyr was one of the oldest and most authoritative hierarchs of the Church during the persecution. Old, weak and defenceless, with his humble and ascetic way of life and behaviour, he exposed the Godless persecutors of the faith, for which he accepted martyrdom”.

The Holy Martyr Volodymyr of Kyiv is also called the “first martyr of the twentieth century.” 

Source:
OCP News Service