On September 25 (September 12 on the Julian Calendar) we commemorate Saint Theodore (Fyodor or Theodore) Lebedev, Priest and Martyr of the Communist Yoke, who reposed in the Lord in 1937.
Priest Theodore Pavlovich Lebedev was born on February 15, 1875, in the village of Stebachevo, Kiberginsky district, Vladimir province, into a priest's family. After graduating from the Vladimir Theological Seminary in 1899, he was ordained a deacon and then a priest. He served first in a church near the city of Yuryev-Polsky, then in a church in the village of Kuznetsovo, Shuya district; in 1932 he was appointed dean.
On September 17, 1937, Father Theodore was arrested by the Shuisky NKVD. The interrogations began on the day of the arrest and continued without a break for three days. The investigators took turns and rested, but the priest was not allowed to rest. The whole plan was that the accused would sign the investigation report within the first three days. But Father Theodore refused. There were plenty of informers in those years, and they wrote that he had said: "... with such a mismanagement system, nothing... will work out, they take everything from the peasant, they look for saboteurs and kulaks everywhere and everywhere, and they themselves cause harm... collective farms are built only to distract people from the church and from faith in God, they force them to work on holidays." On the basis of this accusation was he interrogated:
What did you say about the issue of collectivization of agriculture and the life of the collective farm peasantry?
- I didn't say anything.
The investigation has information that you were engaged in counterrevolutionary conversations in June 1937. Answer.
- I answer again that I didn't say anything to anyone.
The investigation considers your testimony to be false. I am reading you the testimony of the accused... Do you still want to tell lies after this?
- I deny it completely.
Your behavior during the investigation characterizes you as an enemy of the people, who hides not only his counterrevolutionary activities, but also those of other people associated with you. Answer!
- I was not involved in counter-revolutionary activities.
If you continue to refuse to give truthful testimony, the investigation will convict you through confrontations.
- No matter what testimony the investigation reads to me from witnesses and no matter how many confrontations it conducts, I do not admit my guilt in counterrevolutionary activity.
On the same day, September 20, the investigation was completed, and two days later a meeting of the Troika of the NKVD for the Ivanovo region took place, which sentenced all the arrested priests to be shot. A few days later, on September 25, 1937, at eleven o'clock at night, Fr. Feodor Lebedev was shot along with other priests.
Hymns
Troparion, Tone 3
O unshakable pillar of the Russian Church, / rule of piety, / image of the evangelical life, / holy martyr Theodore, / who suffered for Christ's sake even to the point of blood: / pray to Him fervently, / as the Author and Finisher of salvation, / to establish Holy Rus' in Orthodoxy // until the end of time.
Kontakion, Tone 2
Let us, the faithful, / glorify the chosen priest and glorious martyr Theodore, / defender of Orthodoxy / and zealot of piety, / the beautiful sprout of the Russian land, / who through martyrdom reached Heaven and there fervently prays to Christ God // for the salvation of our souls.
Magnification
We magnify you, / holy martyr Theodore, / and honor your honorable sufferings, / which you endured for Christ / for the establishment of Orthodoxy in Russia.