A great miracle took place in the life of the priest Father Timothy Strelkov.
He was condemned to death by the communists, beheaded, but by the miraculous intervention of God his head was restored. This miracle of modern times has been likened to
that which took place in the life of Saint John of Damascus in the eighth century, whose hand
was cut off but healed by the Lord and grown back on again.
These events happened in the following manner.
Father Timothy Porfirievich Strelkov lived in the
village of Mikhailovka in the Urals, twelve kilometres from the regional center of Duvan. This priest of deep faith was the younger brother
of another priest, Father Theodore Strelkov, who left with the armies of
Admiral Kolchak to the East, to Harbin, where he died.
In the summer of 1918, as living witnesses of this very great
wonder relate, this outstanding priest, Fr. Timothy, was arrested by the Reds on the eve of the day of the Holy Trinity. On the same day they
sentenced him to death as a fearless confessor of Christ. On the night before
of the Holy Trinity they led him on foot out of the village of Mikhailovka, under
mounted guard, in the direction of Duvan. A large crowd of people
accompanied their beloved pastor. In this crowd there were also
representatives of the "new authorities". Some mourned and wept, but
others rejoiced and celebrated. In spite of the late hour, the crowd
of people did not disperse. They came to the village of Mitrophanovka.
And here all those who were accompanying him were ordered to return. All
returned, including even the mounted guard. Only one of them was left.
They allowed the priest's wife to continue on.
The poor woman was weeping the whole time and sometimes asked for
the release of Fr. Timothy. The convoy was silent, while Father
Timothy, addressing her, said:
"Why do you ask this? Do you think that it's his will? Do you
think he sentenced me to death? Others took the decision to deprive me
of life. But the will of God also ordered him. May His holy will be
done. Glory to God for all things! Glory to the Lord for His great
mercy, that He should send me such a death. Do not beseech Him for my release. Beseech the Lord only for one thing,
for the repose of my soul, for the forgiveness of my sins! For there
is no man living, nor will there be, who does not sin. And I have
sinned! That's the important thing you must pray about. Lord, have
mercy, have mercy! Forgive me the accursed one!"
And the priest wept. And his matushka also sobbed exceedingly.
When they were still three kilometres from the regional center of
Duvan, they turned off into an area overgrown with little bushes and
climbed a little hill. The light had already begun to emerge. The day of the
Holy Trinity had dawned.
The convoy rode on his horse, in front of him walked the priests
condemned to death. Beside them walked the weeping matushka. Fr.
Timothy was praying fervently and with tears, beseeching the Lord to
strengthen him for the feat of martydom which lay ahead of him. He
humbly thanked the Lord for such a death.
Suddenly the rider unsheathed his sword, brandished it powerfully
and struck him on the neck. The head of the martyr was struck off and
he fell like mown grass. Matushka shrieked and took to her heels.
Fr. Timothy would later say that he himself only momentarily saw the blade of the sword flashing
over his head, and remembered no more. The blow was exact and
powerful - the head did not fly off to one side, but fell together with
the body. What further happened to him, Fr. Timothy himself does not
remember. But he was lying on his back when he regained consciousness. The executioner galloped off in pursuit of matushka. He caught up
with her. He leapt off his horse and took off her wedding ring. Then he went to the beheaded Fr. Timothy, stooped down, and
gave him yet another blow with the sword on the head and cut his cheek
and hand (his hand was lying on his face).
But matushka arrived at Mikhailovka and related how Fr. Timothy
had been beheaded before her every eyes. The faithful got ready a cart and
came to collect the corpse. But imagine their astonishment and joyful
trembling when they found him alive, covered in blood but with a scar
all round his neck witnessing to the fact that he had indeed been beheaded though
healed by an ineffable miracle. When the clotted blood had been wiped
away, there appeared a fully healed fresh scar around the whole neck in
the form, as it were, of a bright thread. There was no sign of
inflammation. Fr. Timothy showed this scar to everyone close to him, as a
witness of the miracle.
They carried him as dead, covered with branches, to his father
Porphiry, who lived at a mill outside the village. Here, at the home of
his father, the beheaded one hid himself for one and a half months. Then
he left that area and hid himself for about twelve years, when he
suffered a second death for Christ.
But during that period the Lord God wrought another miracle in
the life of Father Timothy. He was in hiding, going from place to place,
when he arrived at a monastery in the Urals. He asked the abbot to
permit him to stay there temporarily. He said that he was a priest and
showed him the cross on his breast. The abbot gave him permission. But a commission appeared and began to check all the
members of the community in accordance with a list.
"How many monks do you have in this community?" the chairman asked the abbot.
"Thirty-two," he replied.
They began to check.
Fr. Timothy was there, absorbed in prayer like all the other
monks. He stood beside a table, leaning against the stove. They checked
them all.
"Exactly thirty-two! It's amazing," said the commission.
It was as if they had not seen Fr. Timothy standing beside the
stove. When the chekists had gone, the abbot gathered the brotherhood
and told them the wonderful miracle of God's mercy and served a
thanksgiving prayer-service not only for the priest, but at the same
time for the miraculous deliverance of the whole community from
inevitable death.
After this incident Fr. Timothy left that area and went secretly
to Sim station, near Ufa. Here he served in a house church until his
last arrest and death in 1930.
There happened to be a witness of his death, the
servant of God Alexander Bogdanov, who was at that time in prison. They
had ordered him to harness the sledges (this was in winter). At
night three men, apparently priests, were taken out of the prison bound
and with their mouths covered up so that they could not cry out. "One of
them," relates the witness, "was tall" - this was Fr. Timothy. The next
morning Alexander found the sledges in the yard of the prison all
covered in blood. They had hacked all three of them to pieces.