Tver, Tver Province, Russia, March 25, 2025
Photo: tvereparhia.ru
A plaque honoring one of Russia’s most beloved New Martyrs was blessed at the site of his martyrdom last week.
On March 20, His Eminence Metroplitan Ambrose of Tver visited Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 1 in the Tver Province, where he blessed a memorial plaque to St. Thaddeus (Uspensky) of Tver, who was imprisoned there in 1937 and ended his life as a martyr, the Tver Metropolis reports.
St. Thaddeus was appointed to the Tver Diocese in 1928. He was highly regarded in the Church—Patriarch St. Tikhon called him “the light of the Church, a miracle of our time.”
OrthoChristian has translated and published many of his edifying and inspiring homilies, which can be Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky)Thaddeus (Uspensky), Hieromartyr
“>read here.
Photo: tvereparhia.ru
By decree of the NKVD of the Kalinin Province on December 29, 1937, he was sentenced to death by firing squad. However, the executors considered this sentence too easy, and on December 31, he was drowned in sewage. He was canonized in February 1997.
In the church at the detention center, Met. Ambrose distributed prayer books, Gospels, other Church books, and icons of Sts. Michael of Tver and Anna of Kashin.
The hierarch then visited men’s and women’s cells, as well as cells for pregnant women. Met. Ambrose spoke with prisoners and detainees, sprinkled them with holy water, gave them crosses, prayer books, Gospels, and books on the spiritual life, offered words of comfort, and spoke about the power of faith and prayer.
He then visited the building of the old prison castle, where St. Thaddeus was held. There, the clergy sang the magnification to the New Martyr.
Met. Ambrose then blessed the facility’s medical unit, which he gave an icon of St. Panteleimon as a blessing.
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