Eugene Isadsky

Holy Hieromartyr Eugene Isadsky, a priest, was born in 1879 in the village of Pogost-⁠Preobrazhensky in the Yegoryevsk district, in the family of the deacon Gerasim Isadsky, and died in the camp on 31 January 1930. The Russian Church honours him among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the twentieth century.

He graduated from the Ryazan seminary and in 1901 was ordained priest for the church of Saints Peter and Paul in the village of Malivo, Yegoryevsk district, today the Kolomna district. There he met the persecution by atheist power at the end of the twenties. Before the patronal feast, the sister of the local teacher informed him that the authorities would not allow the priest this time to go with molebens to the homes of parishioners.

The news spread quickly and many began to say that the authorities meant to close the church altogether. The Father celebrated the patronal service and, as of old, went with molebens to the parishioners' homes, since no official ban had come. On 15 July 1929 he celebrated, at a parishioner's request, an all-⁠night vigil in his house, but at home, the same evening, he received a written order to cease serving in the church and going to homes because of a scarlet fever epidemic.

On 18 July, on the feast of Saint Sergius, the service was cancelled. The Father explained to the parishioners that there was a written prohibition, but a temporary one, and that if the service was so necessary to them, they must petition the authorities lawfully. Rumours spread through the village that the church was closed for good, and little by little there matured the decision to call a meeting and ask for its opening.

A petition was drawn up, signed by all the parishioners. At the meeting of 18 July many women began to cry out that they needed the church and demanded of the chairman of the village council its immediate opening; he answered that a doctor's written certificate was needed. Learning that the decision depended on the doctor, the people of Malivo went to his house; seeing the angry crowd, the doctor gave in a sealed envelope his decision that he did not object to the opening. The chairman of the council also gave his permission, and services were resumed, and it seemed that the conflict was ended.

But the Kolomna section of the OGPU decided to open an investigation of the mass action of believers under the leadership of the priest. On 4 August 1929 Father Eugene was arrested and put in prison at Kolomna. At the interrogation he related the whole course of events, with no suspicion of how grave the consequences would be. All the witnesses, who had known their pastor for almost thirty years, told the story objectively; the priest's innocence was complete.

But one of the women brought to account with him, known for intemperance in drink and disorderly conduct, gave testimony against the Father to ease her own lot. Nevertheless Father Eugene did not admit guilt of organizing the believers' action against the closing of the church. On 14 October 1929 the Special Council of the OGPU Collegium sentenced him to three years in a concentration camp, and on 14 November he was sent toward Solovki, but by the time the transport reached the transit point at Kem, navigation had ended and the Father was left in a camp on the mainland. The priest Eugene Isadsky died on 31 January 1930 in one of the White Sea-⁠Baltic camps and was buried in an unknown grave.

He is commemorated on 31 January, on 7 February in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (new style), on 23 August in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Solovki, and on 5 September in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.