Father Palladius related how the Soviet authorities had brought the priests to submit to Metropolitan
Sergius. That was in 1927/28 in Kiev:
"They collected about two hundred of us clergy on the third floor of a building in Kiev, evidently
occupied by the GPU (a forerunner of the KGB). They declared to us that we were all obliged to sign the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), to whom the Soviet authorities had entrusted the government of the Orthodox Church in the U.S.S.R.
This was the so-called 'signature of loyalty'. Whoever signed the required obligation would be received into the clergy by the 'bishop' and appointed a place where he was to serve. But whoever refused to do this would be looked upon by the Soviet authorities as having, by this refusal, committed an act of counter-revolution. And with such people, as with 'enemies of the people', they said, we can deal severely...
And then they began to call us up according to a list... But they positioned us in such a way that we
were well able to see both the table to which they called us up individually and the window, close by the table, and what was happening beyond the window, below, in the inner courtyard of this building.
When they began to call out the names, no one faltered and not one gave his signature. One after the
other they went up to the table and replied with a refusal. And immediately they threw the man who
had refused through the window onto the concrete square. Some of these courageous martyrs for Christ, on falling from the third floor, were immediately killed and did not move. When others hit the
concrete, their eyes fell out, but they continued to move... And immediately they picked each of them
up and hurled them into a lorry...
Seventeen clergy were thrown in in this manner. The queue now came to me - I was the fourth after
these seventeen. I was in such joy, it is impossible to describe it. Fervently I thanked the Lord: 'Glory to Thee, O Lord, Who hast counted me worthy to receive a martyr's death!...' But alas! at that moment, a chekist came in and gave the order to wait a little with the refusers...
Apparently, they understood that with this method of punishment they would be able neither to shake nor to terrify any of the confessors of the Faith of Christ. And after seventeen had been thrown through the window, they stopped hurling down those who refused to submit to Metropolitan Sergius, and began to give them terms of imprisonment in camps from five to ten years. They gave me eight years' imprisonment in camps... At the end of this term, they gave me three years more in exile
Sergius. That was in 1927/28 in Kiev:
"They collected about two hundred of us clergy on the third floor of a building in Kiev, evidently
occupied by the GPU (a forerunner of the KGB). They declared to us that we were all obliged to sign the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), to whom the Soviet authorities had entrusted the government of the Orthodox Church in the U.S.S.R.
This was the so-called 'signature of loyalty'. Whoever signed the required obligation would be received into the clergy by the 'bishop' and appointed a place where he was to serve. But whoever refused to do this would be looked upon by the Soviet authorities as having, by this refusal, committed an act of counter-revolution. And with such people, as with 'enemies of the people', they said, we can deal severely...
And then they began to call us up according to a list... But they positioned us in such a way that we
were well able to see both the table to which they called us up individually and the window, close by the table, and what was happening beyond the window, below, in the inner courtyard of this building.
When they began to call out the names, no one faltered and not one gave his signature. One after the
other they went up to the table and replied with a refusal. And immediately they threw the man who
had refused through the window onto the concrete square. Some of these courageous martyrs for Christ, on falling from the third floor, were immediately killed and did not move. When others hit the
concrete, their eyes fell out, but they continued to move... And immediately they picked each of them
up and hurled them into a lorry...
Seventeen clergy were thrown in in this manner. The queue now came to me - I was the fourth after
these seventeen. I was in such joy, it is impossible to describe it. Fervently I thanked the Lord: 'Glory to Thee, O Lord, Who hast counted me worthy to receive a martyr's death!...' But alas! at that moment, a chekist came in and gave the order to wait a little with the refusers...
Apparently, they understood that with this method of punishment they would be able neither to shake nor to terrify any of the confessors of the Faith of Christ. And after seventeen had been thrown through the window, they stopped hurling down those who refused to submit to Metropolitan Sergius, and began to give them terms of imprisonment in camps from five to ten years. They gave me eight years' imprisonment in camps... At the end of this term, they gave me three years more in exile
in Kirghizia..."
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From the life of St. Hilarion, Bishop and Hieromartyr of Porech:
On October 1, 1929, under pressure from the sergianist bishops, he served in the cemetery church, commemorating the name of Metropolitan Sergius. What happened next was described by
Hieromartyr Nektary, Bishop of Yaransk, his fellow-prisoner on Solovki, who heard it from
Vladyka Hilarion himself:
"Shortly before this [service in the cemetery church], he had a very frightening dream. It was as if he
trampled the Smolensk Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God under foot. And what then? After serving the liturgy with the sergianist bishops, instead of receiving spiritual consolation and joy, he began to feel terrible pangs of conscience and depression of spirit, 'and the sergianist apostasy,' he told me, 'became quite clear to me - I had turned out to be a participator in the sergianist crimes against the Orthodox Church.' And what then? At that very moment he declared to the sergianist bishops that he was leaving them and returning to his former ecclesiastical position with Bishops (and Saints) Victor, Nektary, Dimitry, and the others."
Hieromartyr Nektary, Bishop of Yaransk, his fellow-prisoner on Solovki, who heard it from
Vladyka Hilarion himself:
"Shortly before this [service in the cemetery church], he had a very frightening dream. It was as if he
trampled the Smolensk Hodigitria icon of the Mother of God under foot. And what then? After serving the liturgy with the sergianist bishops, instead of receiving spiritual consolation and joy, he began to feel terrible pangs of conscience and depression of spirit, 'and the sergianist apostasy,' he told me, 'became quite clear to me - I had turned out to be a participator in the sergianist crimes against the Orthodox Church.' And what then? At that very moment he declared to the sergianist bishops that he was leaving them and returning to his former ecclesiastical position with Bishops (and Saints) Victor, Nektary, Dimitry, and the others."
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| St. Hilarion, Bishop of Porech |