New Martyrs and Confessors of Butovo

On the fourth Saturday of Pascha, the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors who suffered at Butovo (Бутово). This movable feast was added to the Menaion of the Russian Orthodox Church, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia on September 3, 2003.

The Butovo landfill is currently located within Moscow, it is a place of mass graves of the victims of Soviet repressions during the 1930s and early 1950s.

At present, about a thousand persons are known to have been shot at the Butovo landfill for their confession of the Orthodox Faith. By the summer of 2003, 255 of them were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

There is no other place in Russia where the relics of so many Saints have been gathered together.

The Butovo landfill is located on the land of the former estate of Drozhino, known since the XVI century. The last owner of the estate was I. I. Zimin, the older brother of S. I. Zimin, the owner of the Moscow private opera.