Michail and Izmail Rozhdestvenskiys

Coeval of XX c., Michail Rozhdestvensky (from "Rozhdestvo", i.e. "Nativity") was born in 1901 and died in 1988. He was ordained in the beginning of 1920-s by Metr. Joseph of St.-Peterburg (Petrovych.) As well as his bishop Fr. Michael refused to sign the "Declaration" of Metr. Sergiy in 1927--document proclaimed a reconciliation with Bolshevics and led eventually to formation of the Moscow Patriarchy as servile institution. His brother Izmail, also a priest, also became a "nonconformist".

Both have been arrested, Fr. Izmail in 1928, Fr. Michail in 1929. Izmail was executed in Siberian exile in 1937, Michail was released from custody in 1938, arrested again in 1943, the next day after the abolition of death penalty (this was done to memorize the break-through of blockade of Petersburg.) He was released in 1955, spent two years in exile, and the rest of his life spent in the small village near Bryansk. In 1985 after Chernobyl he became ill with the cancer and died in 1988. Until the last days of his life he served as the clandestine priest.

Fr. Izmail Rizhdestvensiy was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981. I wonder whether Fr. Michail can be called "more a saint": long life of confessor, without any konor, death on the break of the "new time," definitely before the first signs of light...

In Russian about them on my site.