Feast of the Holy New Martyrs of Russia

Commemoration of the New Martyrs of Russia (OC) in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin.

Feast of the Holy New Martyrs of Russia

Great Martyr Vladimir of Kiev and the Holy New Martyrs of Russia

I am reminded that today is the Feast of the Great New Martyr Vladimir of Kiev (+1918), the proto-martyr of the Communist persecution.  And this Sunday is the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Russia.  We will never know the precise number of those martyred during what is indisputably the greatest persecution in the history of Christendom, but it is certainly in the millions.  Obviously it is not possible to identify more than a small percentage of these holy martyrs.  Thus the feast commemorating the millions whose names are lost to history but not God.

Commemoration of the New Martyrs of Russia

Today is the commemoration of the Holy New Martyrs of Russia. Their exact numbers will likely never be known on this side of the veil, but most agree that one million in Russia alone is not an unreasonable figure. The last I read (it was a while ago) the number of those officially investigated and glorified by the Church as martyrs was already in the hundreds of thousands. The murderous regime of the Communists has given that country a new Holy Baptism, one of blood.