The Martyrd Choir

Remember in your prayers the martyred choir singers of a parish, who had come to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Nev'yansk for the patronal feast day. They were rehearsing in a hut on a hot summer night and opened the door, seeking some air circulation in the hot cabin. But a passing red army patrol decided they were breaking a curfew as a counter-revolutionary action. To punish this, the red army patrol took the singers behind the church and forced them to dig their own graves and sing their own funeral hymn. A deacon in the group went into the church to pray and was shot there, kneeling before icons. The entire choir (including the two boys) was shot. This was Russia in 1918. Deacon Viatcheslav was canonized in 2002. Pray for all the souls of these innocent New Martyrs!