Andronik Barsukov

Holy Venerable Martyr Andronik Barsukov, a hierodeacon, was born in 1872 in the Olonets province and was killed by robbers in 1917 at the Nosovo Monastery in the Tambov province. He was numbered among the saints by the Holy Synod by the decision of 27 December 2000, on the basis of the decision of the Council of Bishops of 13 to 16 August 2000. He is commemorated on 10 August, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tambov, on 22 August, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Valaam, and on 7 February.

On 27 November 1895 he entered the Valaam Monastery of the Saviour's Transfiguration (Vyborg province) and was officially enrolled as a novice on 8 August 1900; the monastic tonsure took place on 9 June 1907. He performed various obediences in the monastery: he was at the Tikhvin skete as assistant to the dean and was canonarch (choir leader) from 27 November 1907 to 1916. In 1916 he was transferred and until 1917 was a monk at the Nosovo Monastery of the Transfiguration, in the village of Tugulovka, in the Borisoglebsk district of the Tambov province. In 1917 he was ordained hierodeacon. As steward, he defended the sick abbot and the monastery's money and was cruelly killed by robbers in 1917.

A monk of the monastery wrote of him in his diary: "At Valaam you bore the cross of a painful disgrace and of life in remote sketes, and today you have ended your struggle with a martyr's monastic death; by your blood shed may the Lord cleanse your sins, for who will live and not sin? This was done not without the providence of God, who cares wisely and kindly for the faithful. Let there be glory to God for all, who directs the way of our life. As you cried zealously in our monastery, as canonarch, glorifying the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints, so may your soul rejoice in the dwellings of the righteous."