A Priest Enters Soviet Prison
In the frozen darkness of a Soviet labor camp, a thin, elderly priest named Father Arseny became a beacon of Christ's light. Born Piotr Andreyevitch Streltzof in 1894, he was ordained as a hieromonk in 1919—just as the Bolsheviks were beginning their war against the Church. By 1927, he was Prisoner No. 18376.
For more than twenty years, Father Arseny survived the Gulag. In a world designed to break the human spirit, he radiated peace, compassion, and love. Prisoners of all backgrounds—criminals, intellectuals, former officials—were drawn to him. Many found Christ through his witness.
"He treated everyone equally," recalled one survivor, "whether they were murderers or professors. He saw the image of God in each person."
Miracle Survival in Freezing Punishment
One account from the camps became legendary. Father Arseny and a fellow prisoner named Alexei were punished by being locked in a freezing metal punishment shack for forty-eight hours. The temperature was thirty degrees below zero Celsius. No one had survived such punishment before.
Inside the shack, Father Arseny began to pray. He recited the liturgy from memory. He and Alexei prayed through the night, then through the day, then through another night. When the guards opened the door expecting to find corpses, both men walked out alive. The lieutenant in charge was speechless.
"How?" he demanded.
Father Arseny simply replied: "The Lord saved us."
Faith Transforms the Gulag
Those who met him in the camps testified that his presence brought warmth even in the coldest barracks. He heard confessions, celebrated the Eucharist with whatever bread could be found, and taught prisoners to pray. His love was so genuine that even hardened criminals protected him.
After his release, Father Arseny continued his ministry until his death in 1973. His story, passed underground among Soviet believers for years, remains a testament to the power of faith that no prison can contain.
