New Martyr 20th century

Virgin-Martyr Tatiana Grimblit

1903 – 23 September 1937

A young woman who devoted herself to feeding and aiding prisoners and the persecuted, repeatedly arrested and finally shot in the Soviet persecution (1937)

Feast Day

September 10

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Commemorated as

The Holy New Martyr Tatiana Grimblit

Life

Tatiana Nikolaevna Grimblit was a Russian laywoman who devoted her life to feeding and aiding prisoners and persecuted clergy during the Soviet repressions of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Tomsk in 1903 into a devout Orthodox family, she began as a young woman to provide food parcels to inmates of local jails, and over the following years carried provisions across great distances to imprisoned and exiled bishops and priests, work that brought her repeated arrest.

Trained later as a medical assistant and nurse, she continued her charitable activity until her final arrest in 1937. She was sentenced to death and shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow on 23 September 1937. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered her among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2002, and she is commemorated on September 10/23.

Timeline 7 moments Read Hide

1903 Birth in Tomsk Born in Tomsk in southern Siberia into a devout Orthodox family; her grandfather, Archpriest Anthony Misiurov, shaped her early faith.
c. 1920 Aid to prisoners begins While working in a home for troubled children, she began using her earnings to send food parcels to prisoners, seeking out those who received no support.
1923 First arrest After traveling a great distance to Irkutsk with provisions for imprisoned clergy, she was arrested on charges of anti-revolutionary activity and held for several months.
1928 Move to Moscow Released from an earlier sentence, she settled in the Zamoskvorechie district of Moscow, sang in the choir of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy, and expanded her charitable work.
c. 1932 Medical work She trained as a medical assistant and afterward worked in hospitals, including as a nurse near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
23 September 1937 Martyrdom at Butovo Arrested in September 1937 and sentenced to death, she was shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow and buried in an unmarked mass grave.
17 July 2002 Glorification The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church numbered her among the saints as a New Martyr.

Contributions & Legacy

3 contributions Read Hide

Charity to Prisoners and Exiled Clergy

By the accounts of her life, Tatiana began her work of mercy as a young woman, using her wages from a home for troubled children to send food parcels to prisoners in the jails of Tomsk, deliberately seeking out those who had no one to support them. In 1923 she carried provisions a great distance to Irkutsk for imprisoned clergy, and through such journeys she became acquainted with many of the bishops and priests then held in the prisons and camps of Siberia.

After moving to Moscow in 1928, she broadened this ministry, supporting clergy, laypeople, and prisoners alike regardless of the charges against them, and corresponded with numerous imprisoned hierarchs who recorded their gratitude in letters. Soviet records noted her contacts among the clergy and parishes loyal to the Patriarchal Church.

Arrests and Medical Service

Her charitable activity brought repeated arrests through the 1920s, beginning with her detention in 1923 and continuing in the years that followed. After a release in 1928 she settled in Moscow, where she sang in the choir of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy under a rector later glorified as a Confessor.

Around 1932 Tatiana trained as a medical assistant and afterward worked in hospitals, latterly as a nurse and laboratory assistant at a hospital in the village of Konstantinovo near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Her colleagues recalled that she openly made the sign of the cross over her patients.

Martyrdom and Glorification

Tatiana was arrested for the last time in September 1937. At her interrogation she denied the charges of anti-Soviet agitation and sabotage brought against her. She was sentenced to death and shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow on 23 September 1937, at the age of thirty-three, and was buried in an unmarked mass grave.

She was legally rehabilitated in 1991, and on 17 July 2002 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church numbered her among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Her feast is kept on September 10/23, and she is also commemorated with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo.

Commemorated with Read Hide

Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Synaxis

Notes

Among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Sources: Synaxarion