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The New Martyr Lydia and With Her, Soldiers Cyril and Alexi
Commemorated July 20/August 2 ( 1928)
For Thy sake we are killed all
day long; we were accounted
as sheep for the slaughter.
Romans 8:36
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Background:
Lydia was born in the Russian city of Ufa in 1901
and died for the Truth in 1928.
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Before her arrest,
she was part of the catacomb (underground) Orthodox Church in
Russia and worked for the Collective Lumber Industry
along with the lowest-paid workers.
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Lydia was arrested on July 9, 1928.
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The GPU (secret police)-operations department had long been seeking a typist
who had been supplying the workers of the Forestry Department
with typewritten brochures containing lives of the Saints,
prayers,
sermons
and instructions of ancient
and recent Church Fathers and Mothers.
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It had been noticed
that on this typist's typewriter
the lower stem of the "k" was broken,
and thus Lydia was discovered.
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The GPU understood that there had fallen into their hands,
in Lydia,
a clue for uncovering the whole catacomb Orthodox Church.
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Ten days later,
uninterrupted questioning had not broken the martyr;
she simply refused to say anything.
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On July 20 the interrogator,
having lost all patience,
gave Lydia over to the "special command" for interrogation.
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This "special command" worked in a corner room
in the cellar of the GPU building.
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A permanent guard was stationed in the cellar corridor;
on this day the guard was Cyril Ataev,
a 23-year-old private.
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He saw Lydia as she was brought into the cellar.
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The preceding ten days of questioning had drained the strength
of the martyr and she could not go down the steps.
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Private Ataev,
at the call of his chiefs,
held her and led her down to the interrogation chamber.
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"May Christ save you,"
Lydia thanked the guard,
sensing in the Red Army guard a spark of compassion for her
in the delicate gentleness of his strong arms.
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And Christ saved Ataev.
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The words of the martyr,
her eyes full of pain and perplexity fell into his heart.
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Now he could no longer listen with indifference
to her uninterrupted screams and cries,
as he previously listened to the same cries from others
being interrogated and
tortured.___________________________________________________________________
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Lydia was tortured for a long time.
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The tortures of the GPU were usually fashioned
so as to leave no particularly noticeable marks
on the body of the tortured,
but at Lydia's interrogation,
no attention was paid to this.
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The screams and cries of Lydia
continued almost uninterruptedly for more than an hour and a half.
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"But aren't you in pain,
you're screaming and crying,
that means it's painful?"
asked the exhausted torturers in one of the intervals.
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"Painful!
Lord,
how painful!"
replied Lydia with a broken moan.
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"Then why don't you talk?
It will be more painful!" said the perplexed torturers.
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"I can't talk . . . I can't . . . He won't allow . . . "
groaned Lydia.
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"Who won't allow:"
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"God won't allow!"
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The torturers devised something new for the martyr,
sexual assault.
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There was four of them -- one more was
needed._____________________________________________________________________
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They called the guard to help.
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When Ataev entered the room,
he saw Lydia,
understood the means of her further torture
and his own role in this,
and there was worked in him a miracle
like to the unexpected conversion
of the ancient torturers in apostolic days.
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Ataev's whole soul was repelled by the satanic abominableness,
and a holy enthusiasm seized him.
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Totally unaware of what he was doing,
the Red Army guard with his own revolver killed on the spot
the two torturers who stood before him.
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Before even the second shot had echoed,
the GPU man who had been standing behind
hit Cyril on the head with the handle of his gun.
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Ataev still had strength enough to turn
and seize his attacker by the throat,
but a shot from the fourth one knocked him to the floor.
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Cyril fell with his head toward Lydia,
who was stretched out with thongs.
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The Lord gave him the opportunity
of hearing once more from the martyr words of hope.
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And looking straight into Lydia's eyes,
Cyril,
blood gushing from him,
gasped his union to the Lord:
"Saint, take me with you!"
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"I will take you,"
Lydia smiled,
radiant.
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The sound and meaning of this conversation
as it were opened a door to the other world,
and terror darkened the consciousness
of the two GPU men who remained alive.
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With insane shouts they both began to shoot
the two helpless victims who threatened them,
and they shot until both their revolvers had been emptied.
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Those who had come running at the shots led them away,
shouting insanely,
and they themselves fled from the room,
seized by an unknown terror.
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One of the two GPU men became completely insane.
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The other soon died of nervous shock.
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Before his death,
this second one told everything to his friend,
Sergeant Alexei Ikonnikoff,
who turned to God
and brought this account of martyrdom
to the underground (Catcacomb) Orthodox Church.
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For his zealous propagation of it
he himself soon suffered a martyr's death.
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All three - Lydia, Cyril and Alexi, - have been glorified (canonized)
as saints by both the underground (Catacomb) and Free Orthodox Church.
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By the prayers of Thy martyrs - Lydia, Cyril and Alexi, - Lord
Jesus Christ our God, save us and have mercy on us and
protect us from NATO and the other forces of the cruel and
ungodly New World Order that wage war against all True Christians
who stand for Apostolic Truth and an historic Christian faith. Amen.
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Adapted from RUSSIA'S CATACOMB SAINTS - LIVES OF THE NEW MARTYRS
by Ivan Andreyev and Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose
St. Herman of Alaska Press - 1982
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