Theodore Lebedev

Saint Theodore Lebedev, hieromartyr (20 February 1876 to 25 September 1937), was an archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ivanovo region, shot in 1937 after three days of interrogation without rest. He was numbered among the saints in 2000 by the Jubilee Council of Bishops. He is commemorated on 25 September, the day of the martyrdom, and on 20 June, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk.

Life

He was born on 20 February 1876 (according to other data 15 February) in the village of Vorogovo, in the Yuryev district, Vladimir province (according to others in Stebachevo, Suzdal district). His father, Pavel Alexeevich Lebedev, was a psalm reader, his mother, Raisa Platonovna, a housewife. The family had several children: Theodore, Alexander, Vladimir, Lyubov and Raisa. In 1892 Theodore finished the church school at Suzdal and was appointed psalm reader in the village of Adamovo. He then followed the seminary at Vladimir, which he finished in 1899, was ordained deacon and, in 1900, priest. From 1900 to 1928 he served in the village of Alexino, in the Yuryev district, and was raised to archpriest for his labour.

In 1928, when his brother, Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, died, he went to the funeral, and in his absence the men of the political police came to his house, searched long for precious vessels and found only buried church books. They drove his wife, Elena, out of the house, with the children Nina and Nicholas, and confiscated the house and all the goods. On his return he was accused of agitation against the collective farms, arrested and imprisoned at Ivanovo, but was released the same year. The diocese moved him to the village of Kuznetsovo, in the Shuya district, Ivanovo region, where in 1932 he was appointed dean. In 1933 to 1934 he was arrested again and served two months in prison.

Arrest and martyrdom

On 17 September 1937 he was arrested, together with other priests, by the Shuya section of the NKVD, on the charge of "active participation in a counter-⁠revolutionary group, systematic fascist agitation against the leaders of the party and government". The interrogations began on the day of the arrest and lasted more than three days without a break; the investigators changed and rested, while the priest was not allowed to rest, in the hope that in the first three days he would give confessions. He refused and answered every question: "I said nothing"; "I did not engage in counter-⁠revolutionary activity"; "However many testimonies they read to me and however many confrontations they make, I do not admit guilt". On 20 September the investigation was finished, on 23 September the troika sentenced all the arrested priests to death, and on 25 September 1937, at eleven at night, Father Theodore was shot together with other priests. He was rehabilitated on 22 April 1959, the certificate of rehabilitation stating, falsely, that he had died of pneumonia. In 2000 the Jubilee Council of Bishops numbered him among the saints.