He was proud of a military uniform, thought to learn from the cook, but became a saint for people ...

The shoulders are deployed, the chest with a wheel, the young soldier stands like in a parade. Camouflage, brilliantly polished shoes, on the shoulder of an automatic machine, around the head - a halo. He has a person’s face for whom a debt is everything. So the newspaper New York Times describes the image of a soldier Evgeny Rodionov, who martyrs who martyled in the Chechen war (the website of Inopressa.ru introduces the publication).

Portraits of Evgenia Rodionov, who are revered among many believers as icons, diverge throughout Russia, writes New York Times. On some, he is in shape, on others - in a traditional vestment for icon -painting images, on some he is armed, on others - holds a cross. Somewhere he was presented in military uniform among Nicholas II and his family members under the image of the Savior. However, in all cases it is shown as a saint - with a halo around the head.

It was not the Church, but the folk veneration of the righteous. Church authorities, the author of the publication notes, call this a violation of religious traditions, since holiness is not just popularity, but icons are not election posters. The process of canonization, they say, is long for both complicated, and only the church can carry out it.

But sometimes it happens that a real person becomes a kind of symbol, the focus of feelings that prevail at a certain moment in the soul of the people, and becomes the saints in his mind. This may be the first step towards official canonization, the newspaper notes, considering this new phenomenon of folk holiness for modern Russia.

The story of the ordinary Rodionov, told in brochures, songs, poems, sermons on the Internet, became a kind of parable about Russian piety and heroic patriotism.

“19 -year -old Evgeny Rodionov went through unthinkable suffering,” the newspaper quoted the word said about the soldier in an article posted on one of the Russian patriotic sites, “but did not renounce the Orthodox faith, but approved it with his martyrdom. He proved that today, after decades of militant atheism, after many years of unbridled nigilism, Russia, as in the previous times, as well as in the previous times Able to give birth to martyrs for Christ, which means that it is invincible. "

Seven years ago, Evgeny Rodionov was killed by Chechen militants for refusing to renounce Orthodoxy and remove a small silver cross from his neck. According to his mother, it was precisely such a story that the Chechens who killed him told her, who then, for 4 thousand dollars, took her to the place where he was buried. At night, she dug up the body and among the bones she saw a cross with small stains of blood brilliant in the light of a flashlight.

When the rumor of a martyr’s soldier began to spread across Russia, in a small village near Moscow, where the 51-year-old mother of Eugene cares for his grave on the slope of the hill near the old church, pilgrims began to appear.

Some veterans as a sign of respect leave their medals from the grave. People who are in trouble write notes, asking him about intercession.

In one of the temples near St. Petersburg, the image of a martyr, represented in full growth, in modern military uniforms, is located near the altar next to the icons of the Virgin, Archangel Mikhail and Emperor Nicholas II, the last king, executed by the Bolsheviks and canonized three years ago.

Alexander Makeev, an officer, who heads the Fund for Assisting Soldiers, says that he saw a soldier who kneel in prayer before the image of an ordinary Rodionov. “These children in Chechnya feel that they were thrown by the state, their commanders abandoned them,” he told the Moscow Komsomolets newspaper. “They don’t know who to ask for help, but they understand that Zhenya is one of them.” In the minds of these young people, Eugene is their peer, a contemporary - a soldier who proved something that for representatives of a generation that grew up under socialism is a breakthrough into a completely different sphere.

Among the photos of the son, which Zhenya’s mother Lyubov Rodionov lays out on the table in the kitchen, several laminated cards, of those that soldiers often carry with them for happiness. On postcards, his image with the inscription "Martyr Eugene" and prayer:

"In suffering, he received from you, Lord our God, a martyrdom. With your strength, he inhibit his tormentors, defeated the arrogance of demons. His souls saved our souls!"

The mother of the ordinary Rodionov and other believers say that sometimes fragrance comes from his images, as from the most revered Orthodox icons.

According to the mother, the icon, located in her house, sometimes the myrrh is assing. “When this happens, and I’m going to go somewhere, I put this trip,” she says. “The icon gives me a sign.”

Lyubov Rodionova said that she was able to find her son’s body and find out how he died, during a break in the war, when Chechen militants returned the prisoners and bodies of those whom they killed for a lot of money.

According to her, they said that in 1996 they captured Eugene and three more soldiers who guarded the checkpoint, and kept them in the basement for 100 days before executing.

Private Rodionov, according to his mother’s stories, was proud to be military uniform and fulfills his duty to the country. But in fact, he always dreamed of becoming a cook, concludes an article about the Russian martyr American newspaper.