From ancient times the Russian Church was renown for the multitude of saints glorified in the Russian land. These saints were of all rank, gender and age: nobles and commonfolk, monastics and laymen, men and women, elders and children. One thing was lacking in this glorious assembly: with minor exceptions it did not contain any martyrs. But when the Lord allowed the Russian people, who had committed the terrible sins of apostasy and regicide, to fall into the hands of the godless, and the servants of Satan whipped up a persecution for faith much crueler than in the first centuries of Christianity, then the assembly of Russian saints became adorned with the shining crown of martyrdom. The troparion to the new martyrs and confessors well describes the martyric feat of these new and wondrous sufferers for Christ:

Flowers of the Russian spiritual field,* blossoming in a time of cruel persecution,* countless new martyrs and confessors:* hierarchs, royal passion-bearers and priests,* monastics and laymen, women and children,* who have patiently borne good fruit for Christ;* pray to Him, Who was your planter,* that He deliver His people from the godless and the evil,* and that your blood and your suffering* become the foundation of the Russian Church* for the salvation of our souls.