Fr. Daniel☦️@Fragbaza
The Forest of Butovo— Where over 1000 clerics were executed
The Butovo Forest was an execution site of the Soviet secret police located near Drozhzhino in Leninsky District, Moscow Oblast from 1938 to 1953.
Butovo was used for mass executions and mass graves during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, with 20,761 prisoners of various nationalities documented as being transported to the site and executed.
In the winter of 1937 a group of priests, including an old bishop, were transported in the "black crow" (Stalin's closed trucks of the Communist secret police) to the scene of the execution. The ground was icy, hard as a rock.
The guards, with their faces covered, ordered them to come out. The procedure was regular, cold and fast. However, something happened that the municipalities did not expect.
As they were set at the edge of the plough, the bishop, with a trembling but clear voice, began to sing "Christ is Risen".
The other priests, instead of crying or asking for mercy, joined him. Their chants echoed in the forest, breaking the absolute silence of death.
An officer yelled to stop, marking the bishop in the face. He looked at him in the eyes with a peace that seemed eerie. "We forgive you, my children," he whispered, "for you do not know what you do." Every time a priest fell into the gap, the next would pick up the hymn from where the previous one had left off.
With the last priest standing, the congregations were frozen. It wasn't the fear of death that shook them, but the lack of fear on the part of their victims. The last priest made the sign of the Cross, blessed his shooters, and fell into the pit before the final bullet was even heard.
It is said that for years later, the inhabitants of the surrounding areas avoided approaching the Butovo Forest. They said that at nights, when the wind was blowing from the north, you could still hear the heavenly chants coming from through the earth.
Today, a magnificent temple is erected on that spot. At its foundations are guarded thousands of objects found in the excavations: small crosses, etc., witnesses to a faith not defeated by bullets.
From the book: Testimonies of Butovos - the Calvary of the Russian New Martyrs.