Venerable Martyr, Hegumen Parthenius, Hegumen of Kiziltash

Venerable Martyr Parthenius was born in 1815 in Yelisavetgrad, in the world Polycarp Zhuravsky, and completed a course at the Yelisavetgrad theological school. Having taken monastic vows, he devoted himself entirely to establishing a monastery in the hard-to-reach mountain locality of Kiziltash near Sudak: he cut roads, broke stone, sawed boards, burned lime and bricks, grafted cuttings onto wild pear trees, planted vineyards, and dug wells, transforming a cave in the cliff into a whole hermitage with guest houses, a church, cells, and outbuildings — thus the Kiziltash Monastery of St. Stephen of Surozh came into being. Hegumen Parthenius was tragically killed by Crimean Tatar bandits on September 4, 1867. The Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church numbered Hegumen Parthenius among the saints in the rank of venerable martyr in 2000. His memory is kept on September 4/17.