O HOLY MARTYR INTERCEDE FOR US...

Greek Orthodox priests I've spoken with have asserted that, unlike in the Catholic Church, Orthodox sainthood begins at the popular level, with those who knew the reposed holy man or woman and knew their manner of life beginning to request their intercessions, commemorate the date of their repose, etc--that the official recognition of a saint by the Church authorities is merely a ratification of a veneration already long practiced by the people.

This seems to be a prime example of such a thing. It's a New York Times story about a Russian Orthodox army private in Chechnya seven years ago who was beheaded after refusing to renounce the Christian Faith or remove his baptismal cross, despite the threats of his Muslim captors. His mother later learned of the story of his death, and, as it spread, people throughout Russia began to commemorate him as a martyr.

Apparently, however, the Russian Orthodox Church authorities are objecting. I'm not quite sure why. Such an objection doesn't jive with what my Greek Orthodox priest said. Moreover, martyrs are commemorated immediately after their witness is done (to the best of my understanding). One of the few American saints (indeed the only one born on North American soil), Peter the Aleut, was martyred by Spanish Jesuits--and the monk-saint Herman of Alaska recognized him as a saint immediately after hearing the story. Similar things happened with the ancient martyrs, such as Polycarp, Ignatius, etc. Perhaps the story got it wrong and the Russian Church officials are objecting to the likely excesses of popular devotion. Or perhaps they're just on a power trip. *sigh*

Setting that strange bit aside, I appreciate the fact that, for the most part, the devotion to this martyr seems fairly distinct from any blind patriotic support for the Russian army's presence in Chechnya. Here's this quote from a Russian army officer. "The kids in Chechnya, they feel they've been abandoned by the state and abandoned by their commanders," he told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. "They don't know who to appeal to for help, but they understand that Zhenya is one of them."

Here's one of the icons that has been painted of him.