Presbyter
Saint Alexander Popov the New Martyr was a priest from the village of Travyanskoye in the Kamensky region. In 1918, he was brutally murdered together with several other parishioners. When the martyrs were later canonized, the commission managed to identify the names of the people who lost their lives alongside Father Alexander, as well as the exact place of their martyrdom, where a cross was erected in their honor.
The site is located about one and a half kilometers from the village of Travyanskoye, within the Polovini Forest. In the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks brought the priest and eight other people to that place. Before carrying out the execution, they subjected them to savage torture. Father Alexander’s spine, arm, and jaw had been broken, while his fingers had also been cut off. The mutilated priest was pierced with bayonets, while the other victims endured equally brutal treatment. Their bodies were thrown into a ravine and were found by faithful villagers.
When the wife of one of the martyrs saw what had been done to her husband, she lost her sanity. Their children were left orphaned. The local population was outraged and attacked one of the murderers, Leonid Zuev, who was subsequently killed.
The place of martyrdom was identified many years later by an elderly resident of the village of Travyanskoye, Gennady Ivanovich Tsemizov: "My father showed it to me. We often passed by this place when I was a child. He told me the story, and I kept it in my memory."
On November 16, Gennady Ivanovich and Evgenia Andreevna came together with the monastic community to the ravine in order to honor the memory of those who had suffered a martyr’s death.
After the cross was erected, nuns and faithful Christians read all together the Akathist Hymn and served a memorial supplication in honor of the saints.
