Vladimir Tsedrinsky

Holy Hieromartyr Vladimir Tsedrinsky was an archpriest at Lepsinsk in Semirechye and was cut down with sabres by Red soldiers in August 1918, after a sermon calling for an end to strife between brothers.

He was born in Nizhny Novgorod province, as Vladimir Ionovich Tsedrinsky. He began to serve in the diocese of Omsk, and in 1909 was transferred as priest to the diocese of Turkestan, where he was a school observer and missionary. Then he served at the cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Lepsinsk, in the Semirechye region, of which he was rector from 6 July 1912, and he was also dean of the Lepsinsk district. On the basis of the report in which the priest informed Bishop Innocent Pustynsky of Turkestan and Tashkent of the decision of the peasants' union of the district to take the clergy's land and to stop payments for services, the bishop issued in the Diocesan Gazette an appeal to all Orthodox Christians to care for the Church and ease the lot of priests.

On a Sunday in the Dormition fast of 1918 Father Vladimir gave the faithful a sermon urging them to end the fratricidal turmoil and to remain faithful sons of the Church and of the fatherland. On 14/27 August, after the Liturgy, he was arrested by Red soldiers. The executioners put him between two horses, drove him at a run to the cemetery outside the town, and there, before the eyes of his parishioners, cut him down with sabres. The faithful carried his body into the church, and priests of neighboring villages served the funeral. He was buried at the cemetery of Lepsinsk, close to the place of his death. Until the early thirties, as long as there were still priests in the region, memorial services were served at his grave, and afterwards the local people went on to honor him. On 2 July 2001 his relics were found; they now lie in the church of Saint John the Theologian in Taldykorgan. He was glorified by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in the year 2000.

The saint is commemorated on 27 August and, in the new style, on 7 February (movable) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.