| Summary/Abstract |
IN 1938, all the churches near Berdyansk were closed, and the priests who had not yet been arrested came to the city hoping to somehow survive, to be near the church building, to be able to participate in the Sacraments at least occasionally. At that time, the dean in Berdyansk was the famous Archpriest Viktor Mikhailovich Kiranov - a spiritually beautiful and strong person. He hailed from an ancient Bulgarian priestly family, the founder of which was, according to legend, the priest Protasiy Kiranov. Archpriest Stefan Kiranov left invaluable information about the Kiranov family and the cruel persecution of Orthodox clergy in his memoir titled "The Story of a Bessarabian Priest About the Suffering Under the Turkish Yoke of Orthodox Bulgarians Who Fled Turkey to Russia in 1830 and Settled in Bessarabia."** What follows is an excerpt from that memoir.
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