Constantine Uspensky

Holy Hieromartyr Constantine Uspensky, an archpriest, was born on 9 April 1872 in the village of Alexeevskoe, Moscow province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader Basil Uspensky. His full name was Constantine Vasilievich Uspensky. In 1892 he finished the Moscow theological seminary and was appointed teacher at the Nicholas-⁠Epiphany school. Soon he married Anna, daughter of the priest Peter Delitsyn of the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Vasyutino on the Mokh, Bogorodsk district. In 1895 Father Peter retired from the clergy, and in his place Father Constantine was ordained priest. According to tradition, the church there had been founded by Saint Sergius of Radonezh when he was looking for a solitary place of prayer; the present building was put up in 1787 in place of the old wooden one.

Father Constantine was teacher of religion at the parish zemstvo school in Vasyutino, and from 1902 manager and teacher of religion at the literacy school in the village of Dalnyaya. For his blameless service he received in 1901 the epigonation, in 1906 the violet skufia, in 1913 the kamilavka, in 1921 the golden pectoral cross; in 1925 he was raised to the rank of archpriest, in 1929 he received the palitsa and in 1932 the cross with ornaments. For more than forty years he served at the church of Saint Nicholas, showing himself a good shepherd of the flock entrusted to him. The local peasants lived modestly and had no orchards; he planted an apple orchard by his house, and on the feast of the Transfiguration the ripe apples were brought to church in large baskets and, after blessing, distributed to the parishioners. The apples from the father's garden were the favourite treat of the village children.

When the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church began, it touched the parish of Saint Nicholas too. At the beginning of the thirties a collective farm was founded in Vasyutino. The school where he once taught religion became a meeting place for the godless. In December 1935 the head of the school organised a lecture there on an anti-⁠religious subject, but its hour coincided with the service, and nearly all the people went to church. In July 1936, at the call of the parishioners of the village of Alexeevo, Father Constantine served prayers for rain in their houses, but from one house he was driven out by force by a local unbeliever. In 1936 bell-⁠ringing was forbidden in Vasyutino and the unbelievers began to take down the bells; some local young men were not afraid to blaspheme, and the bells were thrown down. Immediately afterward a great fire broke out in the village, which burned twenty-⁠four houses and reached the church. Father Constantine came out onto the church porch with an icon and, at the priest's prayers, the fire stopped at the very fence.

After the leadership of the country decided in the summer of 1937 on mass arrests and shootings of clergy and the closing of churches, NKVD officers began to compel some villagers to give false testimony. On 4 October 1937 the head of the school was questioned, who said that whenever anti-⁠religious work was done in the village, the Uspenskys scheduled a church service at the same time, drawing the people away from anti-⁠religious lectures; for example at Christmas 1935 only eight people came to an anti-⁠religious lecture, the rest went to church. On 6 November 1937 the archpriest Constantine and his son Boris were arrested and put in the prison in Noginsk.

The investigator asked him whether in August 1937 he had distributed apples to the believers in church, and the priest answered yes, since that day was the feast of the Transfiguration, when by church order apples are blessed and distributed; he had distributed them in silence. He was charged with having said that the collective farm's apples were from Satan, with having urged the collective farmers not to go out to work, and with having said that if they did not go to church there would be no harvest. The priest rejected all the accusations except that he "may" have said something about the harvest, but did not remember. His son Boris Konstantinovich Uspensky, born on 24 July 1895 in the village of Karavaevo, Vladimir province, was the eldest of six children; he finished the seminary, was mobilised into the Red Army as a clerk, then worked as an accountant and in recent years lived with his father. False witnesses said that he had said it was a sin to work during the service and that one should go to church, and the Lord would send a good harvest. He, too, did not admit guilt.

On 12 November the NKVD troika sentenced the archpriest Constantine to death, and his son Boris to ten years in a camp. The archpriest Constantine Uspensky was shot on 25 November 1937 and buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. Boris Konstantinovich Uspensky died in Siblag, Kemerovo region, on 15 December 1942. Saint Constantine is commemorated on 25 November, the day of his death, on 29 May, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs who suffered at Butovo (the date moves), and on 5 September, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.