Feodosiy Petrovich Belenky

Feodosiy Petrovich Belenky was born on March 23, 1885, in the village of Uspenskoye, Afanasyevsky district, Dnepropetrovsk region, into a priest's family.
He completed theological seminary and was ordained not later than 1917, serving in Ukraine.

In 1933, he was arrested and sentenced by a special meeting of the OGPU to three years of administrative exile in Kazakhstan. During his exile, he lived in the village of Vannovka.

After serving his term, he traveled to Almaty to seek a position as a priest from Bishop Alexander (Tolstopyatov), but he discovered that the bishop had been arrested on September 3, 1936, and sentenced to three years in a labor camp. Consequently, Father Feodosiy went to Tashkent, where he received permission from the bishop to serve on the condition that he provided lists of the faithful.

From the investigation files:

"In Tashkent, he found a psalmist, N. Shvarov, who was unemployed and living on collected scraps of bread and money, essentially begging... Belenky F. and Shvarov N. traveled through villages and railway stations in the Tyulkubas district, agitating against Soviet power and the Soviet constitution."

In January 1937, Father Feodosiy and psalmist N. Shvarov settled permanently in the village of Sergeyevka (Tyulkubas district, South Kazakhstan region).

From the testimony of church council member A.D. Aleinikov:

"Until 1930, we still had a church in our village. Due to the death of the elder and the absence of a priest, our group of believers fell apart. We spoke with the elderly and believers and wrote a letter to Father Sergiy, asking him to send us a priest. In 1936, he sent a note saying he would send one. After some time, Father Feodosiy Belenky arrived from him. I informed the elderly women, and services began to be held in my house."

From the investigation files:

"Upon Belenky's return from Tashkent, he and Shvarov began holding services without permission from the district executive committee, without formalizing lists and signatures of the believers. Thus, Belenky and Shvarov distorted the Soviet constitution. The accused Belenky bought good candies, gave them to schoolchildren, and simultaneously agitated his students to bring their relatives to him for baptism, persuading children to attend prayer services in the prayer house. Belenky and Shvarov conducted services in the mentioned villages."

From Father Feodosiy's testimony:

"I am accused of holding services without permission, but this is untrue because there are documents from the district authorities granting the right to conduct services. As for the children—why would I need to persuade them when parents themselves bring and lead their children to be baptized?"

From the case materials:

"In early February 1937, while in a cooperative in the village of Antonovka, he openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Soviet power and discredited the leader of the party and government."

From Father Feodosiy's testimony:
 

"Yes, I was indeed in the cooperative to buy soap and tooth powder. I mentioned that the party leader studied in a theological seminary and was expelled from the fifth class for revolutionary activities. Why I said that, I don't remember."

At the court session, Father Feodosiy refuted all accusations against him, but on April 6, 1937, the People's Court of the Tyulkubas district of South Kazakhstan region sentenced him to four years of imprisonment under articles on "hooliganism." However, the regional prosecutor disagreed with the court's decision and on June 2, 1937, decided to reclassify the case under Article 58-10 ("counter-revolutionary activity"), which was done. On October 4, 1937, Father Feodosiy was arrested.

On November 4, 1937, the troika of the UNKVD for the South Kazakhstan region sentenced Father Feodosiy to the highest measure of punishment.

He was executed on January 11, 1938, in the Tyulkubas district of the South Kazakhstan (Chimkent) region. His burial place is unknown.

On May 7, 1989, he was rehabilitated by the prosecutor of the Chimkent region regarding the 1937 repressions.

He was canonized as a new martyr and confessor of Russia in August 2000 at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.