Neo-martyr Eugene Rodionov

       The neo-martyr Eugene Rodionov was a soldier in the first war of Chechnya under the accursed Yeltsin. He was captured by Chechnyan guerillas, tortured, slaughtered like a lamb and beheaded when he refused to become muslim and fight Russia, as the executioner himself told his mother.
       He was beheaded in 1996 the day of his 19^th birthday. Even though he was not brought up in a pious surrounding he would never be separated from the small cross that was given him by his grandma on his 11^th birthday. From this small cross his mother recognized his body that was lying in a mass grave with three other fellow soldiers. For his brave refusal to be separated from that cross and deny his faith in the Crucified, he was slaughtered like a lamb on 10/23 May 1996. His severed head was buried by his islamic guerillas in another place.
       His tragic mother started searching alone to find her son, as soon as she learned that he was prisoner in mid February 1996. She then mortgaged her house in Moscow to get money, necessary for dealing with the guerillas and started to look for the place where her son was buried. From the start of her searching she came in touch with the islamic separatists, she suffered hardships and her life was threatened from untold number of dangers but finally she managed to speak to the same murderer of her son, Ruslan Khaikhoroyer.
       He told her that Eugene was given a chance to save his life but refused to take off his cross and become muslim and he even tried to escape once.
       His mother refused to believe that her son was not alive, even when she recognized his boots during his disinterment. When however she saw the small cross on his headless body she could not endure and she fainted.
       Finally she managed by paying "ransoms" to allow her to take and transfer the body of Eugene and of his fellow soldiers to Moscow where the funeral took place. The father of Eugene died five days after the burial of his son.
       In the video also appears his mother, who is known to many parts of the Russian population as "the mother of Eugene.
       The rendering of honour to his person increases with time in Russia. Already books have been published on his life and martyrdom with the blessing of his beatitude patriarch Alexis II, there is a Church with his name, a service has been written and many icons have been produced, some of them myrrh-bearing.
       Of course the Church has not yet included in the "Hagiologion" (Register of Saints) the neo-martyr Eugene but it is expected it will not take too long.

Source: http://misha.pblogs.gr/2009/02/efgenios-rondonwf-o-19hronos-neomartyras-twn-hmerwn-mas.html