Macarius Morzhov

Holy Venerable Martyr Macarius Morzhov, a hieromonk (1872-1931), was a peasant of the Vologda province, baptized Michael, who became the cell-⁠attendant of a great elder and was shot because he would not give up any of that elder's spiritual children. Born on 16 May 1872, he served in the army, worked two years in a Moscow factory and in 1899 entered the Smolensk Zosima Hermitage, where he was linen-⁠keeper and refectorian.

Beside Elder Alexis

In 1900 the abbot made him cell-⁠attendant to the hermitage's spiritual father, the hieromonk Alexis (Solovyov); in 1903 Michael was tonsured with the name Macarius and served the elder for the rest of the elder's life. Father Alexis went into seclusion in 1908 and after 1916 received only the monastic brethren. Brought out of solitude for a time by the Council of 1917-1918, he drew the lot with the name of the future patriarch, and Metropolitan Tikhon was chosen. When the monastery was closed, in 1923, Alexis and Macarius moved to Sergiev Posad, into a rented lodging, and the spiritual children supported them with gifts. The elder, unable to walk after 1925, was so grateful for the smallest services that Macarius was moved to tears. After his repose, on 2 October 1928, Macarius was ordained hierodeacon and hieromonk, after twenty-⁠eight years of serving the elder.

Arrest and confession

On 5 April 1931 he was arrested together with many other monks. The investigators hoped to learn from the elder's cell-⁠attendant the names of those who visited, but he refused to say with whom he lodged and named only a few, saying he did not remember their conversations. Questioned in the Butyrka prison about Soviet power and the antichrist, he answered that he saw it as God's permission for the people's sins, that a Christian must bear persecution, and that there is no need to reckon the time of the antichrist but only to live as a Christian. Of the collective farms he said that they were a matter of household economy, not of faith. For himself he asked only to be saved, even by a hidden labour. On 6 June 1931 the OGPU Collegium condemned him, and on 10 June he was shot and buried in the common grave at Vagankovo, Moscow.

He is commemorated on 10 June, the day of his death, in the new style, on 6 July in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, on 1 October in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of the Vladimir land, on 10 December in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Radonezh, and on the movable days around 7 February and 5 September, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of the Russian Church and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.