Nahum Aglomazovsky

Holy Martyr Nahum Aglomazovsky was a peasant of the village of Aglomazovo and suffered with his son Philip, beside the priest Nicholas Probatov and the other parishioners of the village, in the year 1918. With the holy hieromartyr Nicholas Probatov there were killed the martyrs of Aglomazovo Cosmas, Victor, Nahum, Philip, John, Paul, Andrew, Paul, Basil, Alexis, John and the martyr Agatha.

The priest Nicholas Probatov had served since 1906 at the Epiphany church in Aglomazovo. In February 1918, when the Bolsheviks announced mobilization into the Red Guard, the peasants, who had awaited peace from the Bolsheviks, resolved not to enrol in the army but to go to the nearest town and drive out the Bolshevik authorities. Before leaving they asked Father Nicholas to serve a moleben for a good journey. After the moleben the priest gave a short sermon, ending: "I bless you to go to fight the persecutors of the Church of Christ." The peasants, armed with axes and pitchforks, set out for the town twenty-⁠five versts away, but on the way the resolve of many melted, and at the edge of the town they were met with machine-⁠gun fire from the belltower and scattered. But the Bolsheviks did not forgive those who opposed them and sent a punitive detachment to Aglomazovo. The priest sent his family to the neighbouring village, he himself stayed, and when the detachment drew near he said, "The Roman legions are coming." The punishers settled in a large brick house near the church, and took all the arrested to the cellar. The lists for arrests were made by the village teacher, an atheist who did not love the church and the priest.

The arrested were questioned with beatings and mockery. Father Nicholas was struck with iron rods on the soles of his feet, being forced to dance. "I never danced before, and I shall not dance before death," the priest answered. To all the insults he answered, "Christ suffered, being sinless, and we suffer for our sins." The teacher had put a few women on the list, but the commander of the detachment struck out the women's names, leaving only Agatha, who was wholly alone and for whom there was no one to plead. The executioners mocked her long and cunningly, but she bore it all in silence. At last it was announced that all the arrested would be shot. Before death all confessed. About seven in the evening the Red Guards led out of the cellar eighteen condemned men and took them to the river Tsna. At the river they divided them into two parties, one they led along the bank to the left, the other to the right. Soon the command rang out for the guards to line up and prepare to fire. The condemned crowded opposite. Father Nicholas, with hands raised, prayed, saying the words loudly and distinctly: "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do." A volley rang out. Although it had grown quite dark and the punishers did not seem inclined to check who was alive and who dead, Father Nicholas, gathering his strength, rose and, with hands raised, went on praying aloud: "It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos..." At the second volley he was killed.

Of the eighteen, thirteen were killed; the rest crawled in the night to the nearest cottages and were hidden by the inhabitants, from whom the details of the shooting became known. Killed were the churchwarden Cosmas Egorovich, the peasants Victor Krasnov, Nahum and Philip (father and son), Ivan, Paul, Andrew, Paul, Basil, Alexis, Ivan and Agatha. The next morning the peasants prepared a cart and went to take the slain; with them went the priest's son, Alexander. All the sand was soaked with blood; Alexander took off the top layer and put it on the cart. The priest's body was already stiff, with hands raised at the last prayer, fingers folded for blessing. As they carried him through the village, the peasants looked out of the windows and said, "Father blesses us even dead." Priests of neighbouring parishes came to bury him and held the service in his house, the windows covered with black cloth, so that the punishers should not see what was going on. They buried Father Nicholas in the depth of the night. Nahum is commemorated on 11 November, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (a movable day) and, on 23 June, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan.