Theodore Ivanov

Holy Martyr Theodore Ivanov was born in 1895 in Tobolsk, in the family of a courier and watchman at the state archive, who also sewed men's clothing on the side. He was shot on 11 September 1937, in the Tobolsk prison.

In 1911 his father died and his mother was left with ten children, the youngest only ten months old, and she took work at the archive in her husband's place. From childhood Theodore served in the cathedral. The cathedral was cold, and Theodore, sleeping in it, often caught cold. At thirteen he fell ill with articular rheumatism, and a year later became an invalid, with paralysed legs. For the first years the pain was so great that at times he cried out. In 1916, during the solemn glorification of Saint John of Tobolsk, Alexandra Vasilievna Dulepova, acquainted with the Tsar's family, proposed to his mother that she show him to Dr Derevenko, the heir's physician. After the examination the doctor said that the diagnosis had been correct but the treatment wrong, and that he could not take him on. At another time, during the feast service of Saint John, Theodore was brought to venerate the relics of the saint, and from that day the pain in his legs stopped.

For his deep faith, people held him in great respect and many came to him: monks, priests, bishops. Sometimes, when an all-⁠night vigil was being served in the cathedral, the bishop would anoint some of the people with oil, then leave the priests and go to Theodore, whom he anointed, and then everyone in the house. Among the exiled priests, Father Mitrophan Serebryansky, abbot of the Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow, and Father George Skripka visited him; many clergy wrote to him asking for counsel and comfort. The ailing Theodore was honoured by the people as a great consoler of grieving souls and a tireless intercessor.

In 1937 the Tobolsk NKVD began mass arrests; in one month one hundred and thirty-⁠six people were arrested. In August the authorities warned Theodore that he would be arrested if people did not stop coming to him, but he could not refuse those seeking comfort. Soon they came to him with a search, taking books and correspondence. That evening his sister Evgenia, with her husband, found him joyful and calm. A few days later NKVD officers came to take him. Theodore said meekly that if there was such an order, he submitted to authority. A stretcher was prepared. His mother wished to bring his only suit, prepared for death, but she was not allowed.

In prison he was asked nothing, was not taken to interrogations, and the investigator did not come to his cell. The whole accusation rested on a reference given by the chairman of the Tobolsk district council, which called him a religious fanatic and his dwelling a place preparing an armed uprising against Soviet power. On 11 September the UNKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was shot in the Tobolsk prison and buried on its grounds.

He is commemorated on 12 September (new style), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on 7 February, and in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Tobolsk Metropolis on 23 June, these two being movable.