Demetrius Rudakov

Holy Martyr Demetrius Rudakov was a psalm-⁠reader and received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 27 November 1937, at Butovo, near Moscow, together with the priest Sergei Rufitsky. He was born on 20 October 1879 in the village of Pokrov, in the Vladimir province, in the family of the priest John Rudakov. He is commemorated on 27 November, on 29 May, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 6 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, and on 5 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.

In 1889 he finished three classes of the clerical school. Between 1901 and 1914 he served as psalm-⁠reader at the church in the village of Gavriltsevo, and in 1914 moved to the parish of the church of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God in the village of Ivanovo, where he served until his arrest. After the death of his wife he married a second time, to Tatiana Fyodorovna, with whom he had in 1919 a daughter, Nadezhda. The priest Sergei Mikhailovich Rufitsky was born on 6 August 1884 in the village of Yeltsino, in the Pokrov district of the Vladimir province, in the family of the priest Mikhail Ivanovich Rufitsky. All four elder sons of the family became priests, and in Soviet times all received a martyr's death. Sergei finished the Vladimir seminary, in 1907 was ordained priest and sent to the church in Sedikovo, and from 1919 until his arrest in 1937 served at the church of the Tikhvin icon in the village of Ivanovo. He was modest, hardworking and kind, occupied himself with gardening and beekeeping and loved children dearly.

The persecution

Around the year 1930 the authorities proposed to all the clergy of the church that they publicly renounce the faith. Archpriest Sergei Rufitsky and the psalm-⁠reader Dmitry Ivanovich Rudakov refused categorically. Only the deacon of the church, Nicholas, renounced it, at the club, before the villagers; they cut off his long hair and he left the village at once. The Rudakov family was dispossessed as kulaks, lost their cow and horse and were driven from their house, and Dmitry Ivanovich was sentenced in 1931 to three years of deprivation of freedom. He spent a few months in the transit prison at Pokrov, then was exiled to the Vologda region. His wife Tatiana Fyodorovna and daughter Nadezhda wandered about from corner to corner, but Father Sergei managed to settle them in the church watchman's hut and even to make papers for them to live there. Father Sergei helped the family in everything he could while Dmitry was in exile. Tatiana Fyodorovna was told that she could send the papers to Moscow for a review of the case; she did so, the petition succeeded, violations were found in the file, and the sentence was cancelled. After a year and a half of separation, Dmitry Ivanovich returned home and began again to serve as psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Tikhvin icon. In the years 1933-1934 the bells were thrown down from the bell tower. The biggest one fell and did not break, and was then struck with its own clapper. Right after that Father Sergei began the repair of the bell tower. The persecution brought Father Sergei and Dmitry Ivanovich still closer. They spent much time together and carried out the services with unswerving care. Those close to them recall that their church prayer in the last years before the arrest was especially collected.

Arrest and death

The priest and the psalm-⁠reader were arrested on the evening of 17 November 1937, after the all-⁠night vigil. Witnesses say that before getting into the van they crossed themselves toward the church and bowed to the villagers present. After the arrest they were in the Taganka prison. The priest's only interrogation was on 19 November 1937. The investigator tried to obtain a confession of anti-⁠Soviet agitation, but the priest rejected it. On the same day Dmitry Ivanovich Rudakov was also questioned, and he denied it too. On 21 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced Archpriest Sergei Rufitsky and the psalm-⁠reader Demetrius Rudakov to death. The execution took place on 27 November 1937, at the Butovo firing range, where they were buried in an unknown grave. Saint Sergei Rufitsky was numbered among the saints of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia on 17 August 2004, by decision of the Holy Synod.