An account of the Martyric death of the Catacomb Eldress St. Agatha, †1939:
Matushka Agatha foresaw her own death more than a year ahead. She told Tikhon and Thecla about it and was prepared for it. She prepared her burial dress; it was all of a bright green color. She told them that they would starve her to death.
They said that under no conditions would they allow it, but she said: "My little children, you will not be allowed to come to me. They will place armed guards - and I'll die."
And it happened just as she said.
What she would say to the believers concerning the Soviet authorities she would say to the communists also. She was not afraid of them and called them "godlessones - servants of Satan".
When it was reported to the NKVD that one old lady, by the name of Agatha, was teaching the people not to obey the Soviets, calling the Soviet authority godless and of the Antichrist, they sent four young NKVD agents to arrest her and bring her to the city of Gomel.
However, when they came to her house, a terrible fear seized them, so that they hesitated to touch her. One said to the other: "You take her."
And the other answered:"No, you take her... I'm afraid to touch her, because she might get glued to my hands." That was because it was known that her legs were "glued together", and so she was regarded by them as a kind of witch.
She was then 119 years old. And so they could do nothing to her.
Then, in February, 1939, an order was issued to starve her to death. They brought armed guards and surrounded her poor dwelling and no one was allowed to come close. The guards were there all the time, day and night, and were changed regularly. It took between two and three weeks.
Believers would come and see the dear little hut on the hilltop and knew that there a saint of God was
dying helplessly, one who had helped so many people - and there was nothing they could do for her. The guards were free to shoot whenever they wanted.
Then came the sad cry like the funeral knell: "Go bury Agapka!"
The villagers buried her in the village cemetery. Tikhon and Thecla were not there when they buried her, and it was dangerous to be near.
There was no priest, so her people got together in the village of Buritskoye 40 miles away, and spent the whole night chanting the burial service and pannikhida.
The girls and women divided the Psalter among themselves, one kathisma apiece, so that the reading would continue for forty days. And so they prayed to God for her in this way, not only for forty days,
but for a whole year.
They did not forget their dear Matushka, who had saved and fed them with spiritual food during the
time of the terrible famine...
(The clairvoyant catacomb Eldress St. Agatha was killed in 1939. She was canonized by the ROCOR in 1981. An account of her entire life may be found in "Russia's Catacomb Saints" by I.M. Andreyev
and Fr. Seraphim Rose. May we have her holy prayers!)
They said that under no conditions would they allow it, but she said: "My little children, you will not be allowed to come to me. They will place armed guards - and I'll die."
And it happened just as she said.
What she would say to the believers concerning the Soviet authorities she would say to the communists also. She was not afraid of them and called them "godlessones - servants of Satan".
When it was reported to the NKVD that one old lady, by the name of Agatha, was teaching the people not to obey the Soviets, calling the Soviet authority godless and of the Antichrist, they sent four young NKVD agents to arrest her and bring her to the city of Gomel.
However, when they came to her house, a terrible fear seized them, so that they hesitated to touch her. One said to the other: "You take her."
And the other answered:"No, you take her... I'm afraid to touch her, because she might get glued to my hands." That was because it was known that her legs were "glued together", and so she was regarded by them as a kind of witch.
She was then 119 years old. And so they could do nothing to her.
Then, in February, 1939, an order was issued to starve her to death. They brought armed guards and surrounded her poor dwelling and no one was allowed to come close. The guards were there all the time, day and night, and were changed regularly. It took between two and three weeks.
Believers would come and see the dear little hut on the hilltop and knew that there a saint of God was
dying helplessly, one who had helped so many people - and there was nothing they could do for her. The guards were free to shoot whenever they wanted.
Then came the sad cry like the funeral knell: "Go bury Agapka!"
The villagers buried her in the village cemetery. Tikhon and Thecla were not there when they buried her, and it was dangerous to be near.
There was no priest, so her people got together in the village of Buritskoye 40 miles away, and spent the whole night chanting the burial service and pannikhida.
The girls and women divided the Psalter among themselves, one kathisma apiece, so that the reading would continue for forty days. And so they prayed to God for her in this way, not only for forty days,
but for a whole year.
They did not forget their dear Matushka, who had saved and fed them with spiritual food during the
time of the terrible famine...
(The clairvoyant catacomb Eldress St. Agatha was killed in 1939. She was canonized by the ROCOR in 1981. An account of her entire life may be found in "Russia's Catacomb Saints" by I.M. Andreyev
and Fr. Seraphim Rose. May we have her holy prayers!)