At dawn on October 9, 1943, fascists broke into the parish church of the Belarusian village of Khoino. Priest Cosma Raina was ordered to be exposed, taken to a police station, searched. The officer gave the documents and watches to the interpreter. “You won’t need them anymore,” he said. And two Czech soldiers led the father to be shot.
Archpriest Kosma Rain was a hereditary priest. His father sailed on Russian warships and died of wounds sustained at the Battle of Port Arthur. The German occupation found him with a large family (he had seven children) in the Pinsk district of Brest region. Autocephalous churches independent of Moscow were created in the occupied territories with the assistance of the German authorities. Many priests were seduced by this independence. But many still remained loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, bearing in mind that never before in Russian history did the seeds of division and enmity bear good fruit.
This loyalty was far from an internal church affair, and prayer “for our country, its authorities and its army” acquired political meaning under occupation. The occupation authorities demanded to pray «for the liberation of the country by the Russian and the victorious German army.» But Father Kosma always read a prayer for the Russian army. And when it was reported to him, he said that he had forgotten, read by inertia.
No, he did not serve the Bolsheviks, but his flock, the Orthodox people, on whose shoulders the heavy burden of the war fell. The people that day and night went to the east on forest and field roads — refugees, wounded, encircled. Mother gave them bread, boiled potatoes, clothes, shoes, medicines. Many of the wounded prayed for their companions, for themselves and loved ones. People went into partisans. After the Easter service, Father Cosmas announced the collection of gifts for children, the wounded and partisans. And a few days later, pouring tears, he buried the executed and burned residents of the village of Nevel. Then he went to the remote village of Semikhovichi – to the base of the partisans – and in a small church, which, having mongrelized (God to him, Judge), was abandoned by a young priest, communed the sick and wounded, baptized children, buried the dead and dead.
Just as teachers went to the ghetto with their pupils, as doctors accepted death with the wounded, so priests shared the fate of parishioners during the war.
Priest John Loiko publicly blessed the sons of Vladimir, George and Alexander to go to the partisans. “My weapons are on the holy cross, slandered by supostats, and the word of God, and you are God-preserved and honestly serve the Fatherland.” Father John was burned together with the parishioners in the church. After the war, an obelisk was installed on the site of that terrible conflagration, where at first the name of the priest was also located, but then it disappeared.
Priest Nikolai Pyzhevich, a friend of Father Kosma, helped the wounded Red Army men, was on good terms with partisans and even distributed leaflets. Reported. In September 1943, punitive forces came to Old Selo. The father jumped out the window and was almost gone into the forest, but looking around he saw that his house, where his wife and five daughters remained, was being rounded up with boards and straw. “I’m here,” he cried, “take me, God forbid, pity the innocent children.” The officer threw him to the ground and shot him at point-blank range, and the body of the priest was thrown into the already burning house. After some time, the whole village was completely destroyed, its inhabitants were burned in the temple.
In the summer of 1943, the commander of the partisan formation, Major-General V.Z. Korzh, was approached by the relatives of the deceased … police. No one agrees to bury the dead, will you send your partisan priest? In the detachment then served Archpriest Alexander Romanushko. Accompanied by two partisans, he came to the cemetery. There were already armed police. Dressed up, a little quiet. And then he said,
— Brothers and sisters! I understand the great grief of the mother and father of the victim. But our prayers are not deserved in the grave. He is a traitor to his homeland and a murderer of innocent old people and children. Instead of eternal memory, he raised his head high and raised his voice, we say anathema!
The crowd was stunned. The priest went to the police and continued:
Before it is too late, redeem your guilt before God and people and turn your weapons against those who destroy our people, bury living people in such graves, and burn believers and priests alive in churches.
Father Alexander led almost a whole detachment to the partisans and was awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” of the Ith degree.
On October 9, 1943, two Czech soldiers were led to the execution of Archpriest Kosma Raina. Near the church he fell to his knees and began to pray. I don’t remember how long it took, but when I got up from my knees, I didn’t see anyone near me. Crossed, the father with prayer moved towards the bush, and then rushed wildly into the forest.
He went to a guerrilla camp where he met his sons. Together they reconquered their mother from the Germans, who, along with other partisan wives and children, they wanted to send to a concentration camp. The family of the parish priest managed to gather at the festive table only in 1946. The last years of his life, Father Kosma spent in the village of Olgino near St. Petersburg, together with mother and daughter Angelina, who worked here as a district doctor. He is buried here, in the Seraphim church, at the altar.
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Soul investment!
Orthodox stories from life
