Theodosius Sobolev

Holy Venerable Martyr Theodosius Sobolev, an archimandrite, was killed together with the residents of the Nikolaev-⁠Koryazhma monastery: Archimandrite Paul (Moiseev) and the hieromonks Nicodemus (Shchapkov) and Seraphim (Kulakov). Theodosius, in the world Theodore Sobolev, was born on 11 September 1842, son of the priest Dormidont Sobolev of the Saints Peter and Paul church in Zharovsk, Velsk district, Vologda province, and his wife Olga Alexeevna, daughter of a deacon. He received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 30 September 1918.

The life of Theodosius

Theodore grew up in a family that kept the Orthodox traditions sacred; prayer and work were the basis of the children's upbringing. In 1864, finishing the Vologda seminary, he started a family and in the same year was ordained priest in the Dormition church in the town of Totma. In 1869 he was appointed teacher of Latin at the Totma clerical school and worked so well that in 1875 the Holy Synod's inspector gave him an approbation for successful teaching. In 1876 he was appointed member of the school's board and secretary, then priest of the prison church in Totma. Soon a great sorrow struck him: his wife died. Left a widower, he gave himself wholly to the service of God. On 3 November 1879 he was received into the brotherhood of the Saviour-⁠Sumorin monastery in Totma, the next year he was appointed treasurer, and on 6 March 1881 he received monastic tonsure with the name Theodosius. From 1885 he was named abbot, first at the Saviour-⁠Prilutsky monastery in Vologda, then at the Dionysius-⁠Glushitsky monastery in Kadnikov, but the burden of office weighed on him, and in 1889 he returned to his beloved monastery. In 1892 he was appointed teacher of religion at the Saviour-⁠Sumorin parish school, for he saw in the enlightenment of people a way of salvation. In 1896 a new period of transfers began: abbot of the Arsenius-⁠Komel monastery in Gryazovets, confessor of the clerical school in Ustyug and of the monasteries of Michael the Archangel and John the Forerunner, then abbot of the Nikolaev-⁠Prilutsky monastery in Ustyug, and in September 1907 abbot of the Entry of the Mother of God monastery in Solvychegodsk, and in November of the same year archimandrite. On 13 September 1916, because of age and weakness, he retired.

The other martyrs

Archimandrite Paul, in the world Ivan Yakovlevich Moiseev, was born on 16 February 1849 in the village of Dresvishchi, Gryazovets district, in a peasant family. He taught himself to read, from the Psalter, and loved reading the lives of the saints. He entered the monastery after thirty, on 19 March 1880, at the Pavlo-⁠Obnorsky monastery; on 9 October he received monastic tonsure with the name Paul. He was ordained hierodeacon on 16 November 1880 and hieromonk on 24 June 1881. On 13 March 1902 he became abbot of the Nikolaev-⁠Koryazhma monastery, where he remained until death. The hieromonk Nicodemus, in the world Nicholas, was born on 20 October 1852 at Ustyug, came to the monastery at twenty-⁠one, received tonsure with the name Nicodemus on 7 August 1886 and was ordained hieromonk on 25 May 1896. The hieromonk Seraphim, in the world Nicholas, born in a peasant family of the Kostroma province, came to Koryazhma in 1904, received tonsure on 14 March 1904 and was ordained hieromonk on 1 July 1907.

The arrest

October 1917 upset the order of the monastery. For some time a representative of the new power, called the monastery commandant, had settled in the monastery. On 27 September 1918, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, there was a feast service in the monastery. On 23 September a statement had reached the Solvychegodsk Cheka from an uneducated man that in Yarensk, on the bank of the river Chyorna, in huts of hunters, some rich people, probably bourgeois in hiding, lived, and that in the Koryazhma monastery, where he had spent the night, there had been some suspicious types hiding from something. This statement was the occasion for the authorities' visit to the monastery. On 30 September the military commissar and members of the Solvychegodsk Cheka burst into the monastery and demanded of the monastery's administration all the hiding places, including money. The administration refused. The monastery commandant was charged to question the staff; there are no records, only a note: Archimandrite Paul admitted nothing, the hieromonk Nicodemus answered no to everything, the hieromonk Seraphim did not admit guilt, and Archimandrite Theodosius answered that he had not interfered in the monastery's affairs and lived separately. To carry out the reprisal, the Solvychegodsk Cheka counted among the administration of the monastery the hieromonk Seraphim, who did not deal with its affairs, and Archimandrite Theodosius, who was in retirement. The extract says that those accused of insubordination to Soviet power, leaders of an opposing band, Archimandrite Paul, Archimandrite Theodosius, the hieromonks Seraphim and Nicodemus, were to be shot. The reason is not stated. At that time clergy were often shot for not giving up church property, but the adornment of the churches and the vestments did not interest the new power, only the money given for the upkeep of the monastery. At the search they found none. The wish to break their monastic spirit was so great that, without waiting for confirmation of the decision, they killed them on the spot.

Martyrdom

At two in the afternoon on 30 September 1918, on the road from the Koryazhma monastery, on one of the deserted islands of the river Vychegda, were shot: in his seventy-⁠seventh year, Archimandrite Theodosius (Sobolev), in his seventieth year Archimandrite Paul (Moiseev), the hieromonk Nicodemus (Shchapkov), aged sixty-⁠five, and the hieromonk Seraphim (Kulakov), forty-⁠five. Theodosius is commemorated on 30 September (new style), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on 7 February, on a movable day, and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Archangel on 1 November.