Philip Maryshev

Holy Martyr Philip Maryshev received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 15 September 1918, near the Kirillo-⁠Belozersky Monastery, together with Bishop Barsanuphius of Kirillov, Abbess Seraphima of the Ferapontov Monastery and the laymen Nicholas Burlakov, Anatoly Barashkov and Michael Trubnikov. About Philip in particular the page says nothing separate.

Those who were shot

Holy Hieromartyr Barsanuphius, in the world Basil Pavlovich Lebedev, was born in 1871 in a psalm reader's family in the Novgorod province. He studied in poverty at the church school of Borovichi and at the Novgorod seminary, became assistant to the diocesan missionary, was tonsured a monk on 1 April 1895 at the Antoniev Dymsky Monastery and served twenty-⁠two years as a missionary among the Old Believers and sectarians. In 1909 he was raised to archimandrite, and in January 1917 he was consecrated bishop of Kirillov, vicar of Novgorod. At Kirillov he founded the Brotherhood of the Orthodox, for the defence of the faith and the holy things of the Church. Abbess Seraphima, in the world Elizabeth Nikolaevna Sulimova, was born in 1858 in Ustyuzhna, entered the Leushino monastery in 1874, was tonsured a nun in 1901 and from 1906 was abbess of the Ferapontov Monastery, known for her prudence and gentleness. The priest John Ivanov, of the same monastery, was shot on 19 September, having been arrested in May on a false charge. Nicholas Burlakov, born in 1889 at Kirillov, had been a member of the town duma; Anatoly Barashkov, born in 1870, was a peasant; Michael Trubnikov, born in 1855, a retired captain of the second rank, had been a justice of the peace and head of the zemstvo.

Arrest and shooting

On 14 September Bishop Barsanuphius, returning from the Goritsy Monastery, was stopped by two Red Guards, who arrested him. The bishop said that if they shot him, there was nothing to be done. He was taken to the prison, where he met Abbess Seraphima, and spent the night in prayer. The next day, around five in the morning, the bishop, the abbess and four laymen, among them Philip Maryshev, were taken out of the prison and led on the road toward Goritsy, accompanied by twenty executioners. The bishop asked to go into the monastery to receive communion, but was refused. The guards mocked him: let him not hurry, he would reach the Kingdom of Heaven.

At a verst post the condemned were stopped and turned to the right. The bishop said that this was their Golgotha. When the abbess faltered, he supported her and told her to take courage and go to death as to a wedding feast. One of the condemned began to speak harshly of those who had condemned them, but the bishop stopped him, saying that after the Saviour's example one must forgive all. The condemned were set facing Mount Zolotukha. Abbess Seraphima, who at the end of each day asked the sisters' forgiveness, said quietly now, to the killers: forgive me, wretched one. It seemed to the punishers that she had called them wretched, and they shot her. Five volleys followed and all were killed, except the bishop, who remained standing and praying with raised hands; he read the prayer for the departure of the soul, said amen, and then: I have finished, finish too. He turned toward the monastery, blessed it and lowered his hands, and a shot from close by brought him down.

The burial

The grave was dug by merchants. The bodies were lowered with great care: nearest the monastery the bishop, then Nicholas Burlakov, then Abbess Seraphima, and at their feet Anatoly Barashkov and Philip Maryshev. The brethren of the monastery asked leave to carry the bishop's body into the monastery, but the authorities and the Red Guards twice prevented the exhumation. Bishop Misail, who lived in the monastery in retirement, served the funeral service in the evening without the bodies. The place was long honoured by the faithful. In the 1960s the authorities destroyed the signs of the grave and put up farm buildings there, and on 17 December 1998 a cross was set up at the place of the shooting. The saints are commemorated on 15 September.