Hieromartyr Andrew, Archbishop Of Ufa 3 of 3

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Another witness records that "Vladyka Andrew reacted in a lively and open fashion to all the injustices that took place in prison, for which the bosses did not love him, but feared him. He prayed a great deal. He entered into arguments with the atheists and always left them in a derisory position, for which he was often deprived of parcels."

It was in Alma-Ata in 1932 that Archbishop Andrew was reconciled with Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd. They may even have consecrated a bishop together. Archbishop Andrew claimed in a letter that he had consecrated 42 secret bishops up to 1932!

In 1934 he was unexpectedly arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was again condemned by the OGPU on May 14 to three years in a political isolator. According to Moscow patriarchal sources, Archbishop Andrew died in the Archangelsk camps in 1944. But according to recently revealed archival material concerning the criminal case of Ukhtomsky, Alexander Alexeyevich, which is kept in the Russian Ministry of Security, Archbishop Andrew died in the NKVD camp of Rybinsk, where he had been assigned according to the sentence of a Special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR. "On September 3rd, 1937, a troika of the NKVD of Yaroslavl region condemned Ukhtomsky, A.A. to HMP (highest measure of punishment - shooting). No juridical definition of the crime was given, and records of the indictment decision cannot be found. The sentence was carried out on September 4th, 1937 in Rybinsk."

According to other sources, however, on March 27, 1937 Archbishop Andrew was sentenced to three years' imprisonment without right of correspondence in a camp near Rybinsk, but was shot on September 4 in the Yaroslavl prison. One of these sources, Schema-Monk Epiphany (Chernov) writes: "Before the shooting the archbishop asked for permission to pray. The executioners gave the condemned man a few minutes. Vladyka fell on his knees. And it was as if a cloud covered him and he disappeared from view. The executioners were so upset that they had absolutely no idea what to do. He hadn't had the opportunity to flee, and at the same time he was not there... It was only about an hour later that the hierarch appeared on his knees in fiery prayer in the same place, as if covered by a radiant cloud which quickly dispersed. The murderers were glad that their victim was again in front of them, and that they did not have to answer for his disappearance. They hurried to carry out the sentence..."

In 1984 the elderly Nun Tabitha wrote in her memoirs: "Five years ago, Bishop Andrew appeared to me in my sleep and said: 'I've been assigned again to Ufa, I'm going to live with you.' What joy! The God-saved city of Ufa is under his supervision! Glory and thanks to the Lord God for this His care for Ufa and her people!"

(Sources: Paul Boyarshinov, "Svyashchennomuchenik Arkhiepiskop Andrei Ufimsky (v miru Knyaz' Ukhtomsky) - Izsledovaniye Zhiznedeyatel'nosti", Diploma thesis, Jordanville: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1995; M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyatejshago Tikhona, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1994, pp. 903-04; Schema-Monk Epiphanius (Chernov), Katakombnaya Tserkov' na zemlye Rossijskoj, typescript, Mayford, England, 1980; I.M. Andreyev, Russia's Catacomb Saints, Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1982, chapter 19; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Istoki i svyazi Katakombnoj Tserkvi v Leningrade i obl. (1922-1992)", report read at the conference "The Historical Path of Orthodoxy in Russia after 1917", Saint Petersburg, 1-3 June, 1993; "Ekkleziologiya arkhiepiskopa Andreya, Ufimskogo (kn. Ukhtomskogo)", Vestnik Germanskoj Eparkhii Russkoj Pravoslavnoj Tserkvi za Granitsei, N 2, 1993, pp. 20-24; "Gosudarstvo i 'katakomby'", in Filatov, S.B. Religiya i prava cheloveka, Moscow: Nauka, 1996, pp. 108-109, 111; "Episkopat Istinno-Pravoslavnoj Katakombnoj Tserkvi 1922-1997gg.", Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 4 (8), 1997, pp. 8-9, 15; Lev Regelson, Tragediya Russkoj Tserkvi, 1917-1945, Moscow: Krutitskoye patriarsheye podvorye, 1996, p. 536; Staroobryadchestvo, Moscow: "Tserkov", 1996, pp. 25-26, 141-142; Za Khrista Postradavshiye, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1997, pp. 84-86)

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