Matthew Bannikov

Holy Venerable Martyr Matthew Bannikov, a hierodeacon of the Belogorsk (White Mountain) monastery, was killed in 1918, in the Bolshevik persecution, together with the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Barlaam. The Azbyka page gives the history of the monastery in the life of the Venerable Barlaam and his brethren and names Matthew only among the hierodeacons killed, together with Michael, Vissarion and Euthymius.

The missionary monastery on the White Mountain, called the Athos of the Urals, was organized by Barlaam, in the world Vasily Konoplev, born in 1858 in a family of priestless Old Believers, who sought the truth and united with the Orthodox Church in the 1890s. The abbot ordered the services by the typikon and preached every morning and evening, and the monastery was a place of spiritual counsel for many. The last great feast was in June 1917, at the consecration of the cathedral. In August 1918 the Bolsheviks occupied the monastery, defiled the altar of the cathedral and made a latrine of the abbot's cell and a theatre of the icon painters' workshop. Many monks were killed after cruel torments. On 12 (25) August the Red soldiers arrested Archimandrite Barlaam and shot him on the road to Osa. Many brethren also received a martyr's death, among them the hierodeacons Michael, Vissarion, Matthew and Euthymius, the hieromonks Sergius, Elias, Vyacheslav, Joasaph, John, Anthony, monks and novices. Their graves were hidden and are unknown.

They were glorified in 1998 as local saints of the Perm diocese and in August 2000, at the Jubilee Council of Bishops, were numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Matthew is commemorated on 25 August, in the new style, on the movable day around 14 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Perm Metropolis and on the movable day around 7 February in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.