On October 2 (September 19 on the Julian Calendar) we commemorate Saint Constantine Golubev, priest and martyr of the Communist yoke, who reposed in the Lord in 1918.
From the end of the 18th century, the boundaries of the Saratov province were populated by schismatics of various kinds, many of whom came from Poland following the decree of Empress Catherine II. At that time, there was neither an independent diocese with its center in Saratov (it was formed only in 1828), nor, even more so, a sufficient number of clergy for successful missionary work in the vast steppe spaces.
At that time, the Volsk district consisted of fifty villages with adjacent hamlets. Moreover, most of the villages were infected with false teachings. There were less than ten Orthodox villages. The center of the local schism was in the city of Volsk, where in the second half of the 18th century, schismatics founded entire settlements. Near Volsk, the Irgyz River flows into the Volga, where the schismatics organized several monasteries. The schism in these places reached its peak at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. At the same time, the abbots of these monasteries, distinguished by deep and sincere piety, were able to lay the foundation of the Old Believers in the Saratov province by 1797. However, even after the adoption of the Old Believers, the blessed priesthood, and the accession of some schismatics to Orthodoxy, the schism in these places was still very strong and threatened to swallow up entire villages. Of the thirty thousand people who inhabited Volsk, ten thousand belonged to the schismatics. The numerical superiority in the city was held by the Beglopopovtsy, and in terms of wealth and social influence - by the followers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy.
Because of the multitude of schismatics and sectarians, few people came to the church in the village of Baranovka, despite the large number of residents, and on holidays and Sundays the church was almost empty. If schismatics did come to the church, it was on weekdays and only those whose ideology allowed them to attend Orthodox churches. These were the cases that priest Matthew Vasiliev tried to take advantage of. Well aware of the state of the schism in his parish and the essence of the schismatics' teaching, Father Matthew, if he saw schismatics among his parishioners, he would immediately begin to preach to them regarding their false teachings concerning the Church, the sacraments and the priesthood, trying to take examples for his sermons and teachings from the lives and everyday life of his listeners so that they would be understandable to them, and in due time this bore fruit - the sectarians began to think more seriously about salvation, doubting whether they had chosen the true path.
Here, in the village of Baranovka, in 1852, Konstantin Golubev was born. His father, Alexey Golubev, served as a psalm-reader in the church and died when the boy was only nine years old. Konstantin entered the Saratov Theological Seminary and graduated with first class honors. At that time, he turned twenty-four and felt within himself the gift of serving the missionary work, which was abundantly strengthened in him by the theological knowledge received in the seminary. For Konstantin Alekseevich, this was not formal knowledge, a set of dead laws and rules, but the revelation of the Spirit itself. And it is impossible not to teach this true church knowledge to others, to leave the wealth of the church treasury hidden.
In 1867, the Church Brotherhood of the Holy Cross was organized in the Saratov diocese, which set as its task missionary, educational, religious, moral and charitable activities. Missionary work was carried out in Saratov and in the villages of the Saratov diocese, information about the Russian schism was specially taught to students of the 6th grade of the Saratov Theological Seminary, and Konstantin, while still in the seminary, became thoroughly familiar with the various branches of the schism and fully mastered their teaching.
The Brotherhood of the Holy Cross had a book warehouse, was engaged in the publication of the "Saratov Diocesan Gazette", organized religious and moral readings for the people on holidays and Sundays, and also maintained a school. Many of the children who studied there were fully supported by the Brotherhood. Great importance was attached to the establishment of libraries in villages infected with the schism, which were supplied with all the necessary books related to the schism. Some of them were old editions, and the acquisition of such books required significant expenses.
One of the first missionary camps of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in the Volsk district was organized in the village of Baranovka, where an anti-schism library with an excellent selection of books was set up, and students from the Saratov Theological Seminary were sent here for practical discussions on the topic of schism.
Konstantin joined the Saratov Brotherhood of the Holy Cross and received the blessing of Bishop Tikhon (Pokrovsky) of Saratov and Tsaritsyn to go to his native village of Baranovka as a missionary of the Brotherhood.
He began his missionary work by founding a parish school, where he was both the director and a teacher of many subjects, in particular the Law of God. He was sure that schisms and sects arise where Orthodoxy is not preached enough, where there is no church, church preaching and, along with it, genuine education. The rector of the church, Father Matthew, supported the missionary, understanding that Konstantin was taking upon himself the cross of preaching in a parish half infected with schism.
After some time, mainly due to the efforts of Konstantin and Father Matthew, the number of schismatics there began to noticeably decrease and a large group of zealots of Orthodoxy was formed from local peasants, for whom defending the purity and truth of Orthodoxy became the meaning of life; schismatic and sectarian preaching was perceived by them as a far from safe matter, since it drew unenlightened or indifferent people into the net of lies and eternal destruction. In the end, thanks to the zeal of the Orthodox, inveterate schismatics began to come to the church, who, seeing people struggling in God, seemed to wake up from their slumber and realized that the life they were leading was not at all the life to which the Lord called.
Konstantin held conversations with the Orthodox and Old Believers in the church gatehouse on all Sundays and holidays. Most of the Old Believers were initially distrustful of the conversations and although they came, listened and, apparently, internally agreed with many things, they preferred to remain silent, puffed up with their imaginary moral life and knowledge. However, the zealous missionary did not give up, did not lose hope, and this subsequently began to bear fruit. One of the persistent disputants with the missionary was the schismatic teacher Ivan Borodin, who was respected by the schismatics. And suddenly, after many conversations with Konstantin Alekseevich, at the end of 1877, he came to the church gatehouse where the conversations were taking place, and in the presence of all his fellow believers said that he recognized the correctness of the Orthodox teaching and everything that Konstantin Golubev said when he taught the people.
"Why did you yourself remain in schism?!" those present began to exclaim in surprise.
"By mistake," Ivan answered.
Soon after this, at a public gathering, he proposed that the elderly villagers hold a thanksgiving service in the Orthodox Church for the victory of Russian arms at Kars, and he himself prayed to God with reverence at the service.
There were times when life circumstances would push a person to deep reflection. A certain twenty-two-year-old young man, whose parents belonged to the Pomor sect, decided to get married, but the Pomors do not have the sacrament of marriage, and he got married in the Orthodox Church with confusion in his heart. However, the more he thought about the Pomor agreement, the more doubts he had about its correctness and Orthodoxy, and there was no one to ask except Konstantin Golubev. He was the only missionary in these parts, but the young man was afraid to turn to him, mainly because he had recently publicly scolded everyone who went to the church guardhouse to talk with the missionary. But he still overcame himself and went to Konstantin to talk. Then he went again and again, and then began to return to Konstantin more and more often and eventually became completely convinced that the Pomors were people who had lost their way in faith.
People listened to the missionary, asked questions and argued with him, but the main thing was that the missionary himself spared the time to clarify the truths of the faith and expose errors; sometimes the conversations lasted for four or five hours. And in the end, something unprecedented happened in the village - people were drawn to the Orthodox faith and the church; those who had not received communion for fifteen years, or even their entire lives, began to fast and receive communion; children from the school that Konstantin was in charge of began to receive communion, despite the fact that the parents of many of these children were schismatics.
In two years, thanks to the missionary work of Konstantin, one thousand five hundred people joined the Orthodox Church from the schism.
In 1879, Bishop Tikhon of Saratov appointed Konstantin Alekseevich to the position of traveling diocesan missionary, and from that time on his talks in Volsk were transferred from the diocesan school to the more spacious Cathedral of the Forerunner. Here, at the cathedral, Konstantin collected an anti-schismatic library, which contained all the books necessary for the talks. It gradually became clear that the schism was not so strong and that only the older generation remained stubborn, while the younger generation was ready to consider and discuss matters of faith. The difficulty of his work consisted mainly in the fact that he was the only missionary in Volsk at that time, and neither the teachers of the theological school nor the local clergy, who were entirely absorbed in the performance of priestly duties, could provide him with any help. Meanwhile, the number of schismatics in the city reached seven thousand people, and many of them showed considerable erudition and seriousness in discussing the subject.
Konstantin's duties included traveling throughout the vast Saratov province, to all those settlements where either there was no Orthodox pastor, or the pastor was not sufficiently prepared to fight the sectarians, or he was timid in front of them, since in other cases they demonstrated greater unity and organization. But he fearlessly went into direct and public dialogue with the leaders of sectarian and schismatic societies, which earned him the universal love of the clergy and residents, not excluding the schismatics and sectarians themselves.
On March 4, 1895, Metropolitan Sergius (Lyapidevsky) appointed Konstantin Alekseevich Golubev to the vacant position of archpriest at the Epiphany Cathedral in the city of Bogorodsk with the right of primacy among all the priests of the Bogorodsk and Pavlo-Posad districts. Sixteen parishes came under his supervision. The Orthodox in the city and district breathed a sigh of relief and began to look to the future with hope, rightly believing that the missionary work in the district would now be raised to the proper level, and the district missionaries in the person of Konstantin Golubev would receive protection and would not suffer the hardships and persecutions to which they had been subjected before.
On March 12, Bishop Tikhon (Nikanorov) of Mozhaisk ordained Konstantin Alekseevich to the priesthood. At one of the services, which he celebrated together with the clergy of Bogorodsk, Father Konstantin after the liturgy addressed a prayerful wish both to his Orthodox flock and to the schismatic society calling itself Old Believers. In response, the warden of the cathedral delivered a welcoming speech and presented Father Konstantin on behalf of the parishioners with an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in a silver gilded frame. That same day, Father Konstantin was visited by representatives of the parish villages. The Sergius Society of Banner Bearers of the city of Bogorodsk presented him with an icon of the Savior in a silver frame.
Soon Father Konstantin became one of the directors of the Bogorodsk district branch of the prison trusteeship committee and began to take an active part in its activities and in conducting services in the prison church until a permanent priest was appointed there.
Father Konstantin participated in many church events in the Bogorodsky district, in the consecration of newly erected churches, in congresses of teachers of church schools. One of the central questions of the first congress of teachers, which took place in 1900, was the question of "how to teach the Law of God, church singing, Slavic literacy in connection with history and the denunciation of the schism in those schools where children of Old Believers study together with Orthodox children." And here the advice and assistance of Father Konstantin was of considerable help.
In 1913, Father Konstantin's wife Maria, who had been his faithful assistant for many years, died after two and a half years of serious illness.
Three years after her death, their son Leonid, a student at the Theological Academy, wrote about her: "...Throughout her entire life, she was deeply religious. She was very afraid of dying suddenly, unexpectedly - and with her illness, one could always expect a sudden death - and she prayed fervently that the Lord would grant her a Christian end to her life - painless, shameless, peaceful, and she desired, fervently desired to receive communion, if possible, shortly before her death. On the night of her death, she prayed: "Tell me, Lord, what is my end and what is the number of my days?!" - and called upon Philaret the Merciful in prayer, whose memory is on the day of her death, December 1st. And the Lord heard her. She fulfilled and confirmed the words of the crowned prophet David: "As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God! My soul thirsteth for the living God."
During the last three days of her life, she received communion daily. On the last night, Saturday, sitting on her bed, she expressed a desire to receive communion the next day - on Sunday during the early liturgy - but then, feeling worse, she asked to receive communion sooner. After listening to the prayers for communion, she herself read "I believe, Lord, and confess" and received communion at about three o'clock in the morning.
Soon after this she said: "Philaret the Merciful has heard me... I am dying... Now the first litany for the dead will be for the newly departed servant of God Mary..."
She began to read "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart…" Then she said: "My Lord God, Jesus Christ, save and have mercy on me! Father! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit!.." She said it loudly, clearly, distinctly. Then they suggested to her: "Shouldn't we read some prayers?" - meaning prayers for the departure of the soul. - "Read quickly, quickly!.. I forgot!.." - she said restlessly... And as soon as they began to read, she calmed down a little. When they tried to help her, she said loudly: "Go away, don't interfere!.. don't touch! Let me die in peace..." By four o'clock in the morning she began to take on a more and more peaceful appearance, and then it was already difficult to determine exactly when her life ended..."
The time had come for persecution of the Orthodox Church, and first of all it fell upon the workers of Christ, the confessors of Holy Orthodoxy. In 1918, Soviet power had not yet been fully established everywhere, but Father Konstantin had already been arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to death without trial. Apparently, he was finally told that he would be shot, since after that he gave his pectoral cross and service book to his children from prison. The priest did not ask to be released, he knew that he was sentenced to death, and was prepared for it. He only did not know that the villains, having fully tested the strength of the priest's faith during his time in prison, had chosen a torturous execution for the confessor. Father Konstantin understood this when the execution began. But even then he did not ask to be released, but that, having already decided to kill, they kill him quickly, without the torturous fanaticism to which the executioners resorted.
The shallow grave was dug at the edge of a pine forest at the bottom of a small quarry, from which earth was once taken for various technical needs. Archimandrite Sergius (Shein), who was commissioned to make a report on the persecution of the Church and the new martyrs at the Council of 1917/18, describes the death of Father Konstantin as follows: "When Archpriest Father Konstantin Golubev was shot in Bogorodsk, Moscow Diocese, the murderers only wounded him and threw him alive into a pit and began to cover him with earth. The unfortunate man raised his head from the pit and begged them to finish him off; his daughter, who was there on her knees, also begged with tears that her father not be buried alive, but nothing helped, and the villainy was brought to an end - he was buried alive."
The upcoming execution of the priest was known in advance. Archpriest Konstantin served in Bogorodsk for twenty-three years and during this time became the spiritual father of many Orthodox residents of the city. When a detachment of Red Guards led the priest out of prison and led him to the place of execution, a dense crowd of people followed him. Those who walked next to him heard Father Konstantin say out loud: "They don't know what they are doing."
Church traditions have preserved information that the name of the commander of the Red Guards detachment was Belov. After the execution of Father Konstantin, the priest began to appear to him. One day, when his wife entered the room with her hair down, he mistook her for the priest he had killed, shot her and killed her. And then he shot himself.
For a long time, the burial place of Father Konstantin was revered by the residents of Bogorodsk. Funeral services were often held at the grave, a lamp was lit, icons and flowers were brought here. The atheists, discovering these signs of veneration, destroyed the burial mound, buried the flowers, icons and candles remaining on the grave, and over time, the burial place was lost. But the memory of the outstanding missionary priest, who testified to his fidelity to Christ by his martyrdom, has reached our time. And on the eve of the feast of the Archangel Michael, November 20, 1995, the relics of the holy martyr were found and transferred to the Tikhvin Church of the city. During the discovery, the remains of two other martyrs were discovered, who suffered at the same time as Archpriest Konstantin Golubev. One of them was a soldier who was in a detachment of Red Guards, originally from Bogorodsk. He refused to shoot the priest and was killed for it.
Hymns
Troparion, Tone 4
You appeared as an adornment of the priests, O Constantine, for you took up the cross as a weapon, / eliminating schisms and heresies with your glorious preaching, / you preached the good news of Jesus Christ, saying: / be saved from this corrupt generation. / For this reason, you were gloriously stained with the blood of martyrs, / and now rejoicing with the ranks of angels, / pray to Christ God for the All-Russian Church / from heresies and schisms. / Save and rescue our souls.
Kontakion, Tone 4
From infancy you rushed towards God, / a zealot of piety and destroyer of schism, / holy martyr Constantine, / having courageously confessed Christ, / you accepted the most cruel torments, / a good adornment of the Russian Church, / pray to Christ God / to grant forgiveness of sins / to those who honor your holy memory with love.
Prayer
O blessed passion-bearer of Christ Constantine! Having been adorned with your blood as with purple and having been deemed worthy of the heavenly mansions and eternal glory, do not forget us who are on earth, but by your warm intercession before God deliver us all from every sorrow and illness. For behold, we, the unworthy and many-sinful, reverently falling down and kissing the most honorable and most healing reliquary of your holy relics, resort to you as our speedy helper and warm intercessor, and with a contrite and humble spirit we cry out: do not disdain the prayers of us sinners, weak as we are, who have fallen into many iniquities, but, as crowned by the grace of God, cleanse us from our illness and ask Christ our God for health of soul and body. For you have received the inexhaustible grace of healing from our Savior Jesus Christ for your faith, sealed with blood. Therefore, help us who are in terrible infirmities and who have despaired of human help, who have come running to you warmly with faith, and grant us healing without stint: and ask for forgiveness of sins for all the faithful, that they may glorify the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, wondrous in His saints, and His Most Pure Mother, and your warm intercession, always, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.