Archimandrite Rodion

Archimandrite Rodion was archimandrite and abbot of the Spasov Skete in Kharkov province, born in 1843 and dead as a martyr on 29 December 1918. On that day the band of the Bolshevik sailor Dybenko seized him, and that same night, after torture, a Red soldier took his scalp and killed him in a field, together with the hieromonk Alexis (Anastasius, in other sources). The body, examined afterward, confirmed what the killer had confessed.

In those days the Bolsheviks murdered in the Spasov Skete one hundred and one monks, six abbots and officers who had hidden in the monastery. After the White army arrived, the bodies were dug up and buried with due honour. Archimandrite Rodion is venerated as a saint among the new martyrs of the region.