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| St. Synesius |
Bishop Synesius, became a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1926. In 1928 he became bishop of Izhevsk.
After the (1927) declaration of Metropolitan Sergius he entered into opposition to him...
He joined the Catacomb group led by Bishop (and now Saint) Victor. On February 26, 1930, he
retired, and lived in Izhevsk - (while) not hiding his disagreement with, and separation from,
Metropolitan Sergius. He continued to serve in the Assumption church without the permission of the
ruling (sergianist) bishop...
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| St. Synesius holding a prayer service outdoors |
On May 9, 1930 he was "banned" by Metropolitan Sergius, and on June 4 was submitted to a
hierarchical trial, but continued to serve, not considering himself to be a sergianist (but rather,
a catacomb) bishop. As Metropolitan Sergius, relying on the Soviet authorities, increased the pressure on those who did not recognize him, Bishop Synesius departed into the catacombs.
He took on the appearance of a wanderer. He traveled round what was once Holy Russia, but
which was now fallen, full of sin, in bast sandals with a rope belt round his waist, his hair and beard
sticking out in wisps, a knapsack on his back... Who would have thought that he was an archpastor!
In these difficult conditions he taught and instructed Orthodox Christians on the way to salvation. He spoke about the Jesus prayer as a convenient and indispensable work... He also spoke about the
external conditions of the persecuted Church:
"From now on don't go into the open (sergianist) churches. They are snares. There is no Orthodoxy
there. Only the form without the content... There it is as the Lord said: 'Your house is left to you
empty!' (Luke 13.35). The Lord has punished us for our sins. The Church of Christ is not there - only a sham appearance remains. The true pastors have been annihilated, imprisoned, exiled, put to
flight. While the 'priests' that have remained are, as a rule, party members, atheists. And these priests
are creating there what the Holy Gospel calls 'the abomination of desolation'. And we are told to
'flee into the mountains' from this 'desolation'. And this is the same as that which Revelation
refers to as 'fleeing into the wilderness'... Flee by praying to God! He is the Most High, He will not leave us who hope on Him as orphans. He is powerful to defend us, to preserve us from all
evil, from enemies visible and invisible... Save us!"
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| St. Synesius |
His prophecies were sometimes realized many years later. Once he gave a nun some children's swaddling clothes. She was indignant: "What's this?"
But he answered: "It will come in handy!"
And ten years later she was put in camp, and her swaddling clothes "came in handy"!
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| St. Synesius (front-center) |
On May 24, 1931 he was arrested for being “the leader of the Udmurtia branch of the counter-
revolutionary church-monarchist organization, the True Orthodox Church”, and on January 26, 1932 was sentenced to ten years in the camps. He was sent to the camps on the Baltic-White Sea canal, arriving there on March 17. He was accused of inciting counter-revolutionary agitation among the prisoners, and on September 20, 1937 was sentenced to be shot by the Karelian NKVD. The sentence was carried out on September 27 in Sandormokh grove. According to another source, he was shot
on October 15."
According to yet another source, "He died, 'forever on the road' as a wanderer and was buried
secretly by passing believers, as he himself had ordered, in a kitchen garden. And perhaps no one
will know where his grave is!"
According to yet another source, "He died, 'forever on the road' as a wanderer and was buried
secretly by passing believers, as he himself had ordered, in a kitchen garden. And perhaps no one
will know where his grave is!"
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| St. Synesius |