Maxim Sandovich

Our righteous father Maxim Sandovich (also Maximus) of Gorlice, Protomartyr of the Lemko
people, was a Carpatho-Russian hieromartyr who, in practicing his Orthodox faith as priest under
the rule of the Unia, as enforced by the Roman Catholic Austrian imperial government, was arrested
and then executed for his faith in August 1914. His feast days are celebrated on August 6 (repose)
and September 6 (glorification).

Life
Maxim Sandovich was born into the family of a prosperous farmer, Timothy Sandovich, and his
wife, Christina, in the village of Zdyna, Galicia. His father served as the choir director in the local
parish. After finishing four years of study at the local high school in Novy Sanch, Maxim crossed
the border into Russia to become a novice at the Pochaev Lavra in Volynia. Subsequently, he
attended the Orthodox seminary in Zhitomir. Completing his studies he married a young Orthodox
woman, Pelagia, and was ordained as a deacon and then to the priesthood before returning to his
home.
It was not very long before the Austrian militia discovered his Orthodox pastoral and missionary
service as he was denounced by a Ukrainian teacher by the name of Leos, in 1912. Immediately the
Austrian gendarmes put Fr. Maxim in chains and sent him to prison in Lvov. There he was held for
two years without a trial or inquest while being abused horribly and living in equally bad
conditions. Then as World War I was to begin he was released for lack of evidence.
Fr. Maxim's stay at his home in the village Hrab was to prove to be short as the first shots of the war
heralded a wave of new repressions of the Orthodox Carpatho-Russians. The militia, on August 4,
1914, arrested the whole family of the young priest and dragged them off in shackles to the prison
in Gorlice. Fr. Maxim, his father, mother, brother, and wife were forced to travel on foot to the
prison while being prodded by the bayonets of the gendarmes. In prison they were placed in
separate cells and denied the opportunity to see each other.
Then, on Sunday, August 6, while at prayer at the dawn of the new day, Fr. Maxim could hear the
noise of a crowd beyond the walls of their prison. The noise was accompanied finally by a load thud
as a moustachioed German captain, named Dietrich, from Linz entered the prison grounds,
accompanied by two soldiers and four gendarmes. The captain was known to be a cruel and sadistic
person. This group was followed by the prison wardens, some civil servants, officers, and a group
of curious women led by Pan Mitshka, the leader of the Gorlice District. As silence fell, the order
was given to the warden to bring Fr. Maxim from his cell.
With that order two soldiers led the twenty-eight-year-old Orthodox priest from the prison. Fr.
Maxim suddenly realized where they were taking him and humbly and with dignity asked, "Be so
good as not to hold me. I will go peacefully wherever you wish." Even the taunting of the crowd did
not affect his courageous bearing as he walked calmly and with a measured gait to the fateful wall,

as befitting a follower of Christ.

Captain Dietrich ripped Fr. Maxim's cross from his chest, tossing it on the ground where he
trampled it with his feet. As the captain bound Fr. Maxim's hands behind his back and blind folded
him, Fr. Maxim exclaimed that it was not necessary as he had no intention of running away. But, the
"brave" captain laughed and then marked with white chalk a line on Fr. Maxim's black cassock as a
target for the riflemen. In the silence of the moment as the executioners were arranged, Pan Mitshka
read the death sentence. With a short command from the captain, the saber was raised and lowered.
With that action, shots echoed through the prison.
Fr. Maxim's voice could then be heard, first strongly but diminishing as he spoke, "Long live the
Russian people." Then, leaning against the wall, "Long live the Holy Orthodox Faith." And, finally
and barely audible, "Long live Slavdom." As his powerful frame slid down the wall, a gendarme
ended Fr. Maxim's suffering by firing three shots from his pistol into Fr. Maxim's head.
Through all this Fr. Maxim's father and mother watched his heroic death in silence and as the final
shots echoed through the prison his wife fell senselessly to the ground. Thus died Fr. Maxim
Sandovich, a martyr for Orthodox Christianity.

Glorification
Fr. Maxim Sandovich was glorified by the Polish Orthodox Church in 1994. His feast day is August
6.
St. Maxim's son, Maxim, would later return to Gorlice and lead a thriving Orthodox community
there.
There is a liturgical service and an akathist hymn in his honor.

External links
Orthodox Europe: Orthodox Carpatho-Russia: The People From Nowhere which includes
The Hieromartyr Maxim and His Age
Holy New Hieromartyr Maximus Sandovich: His Life and Martyrdom
The Persecution and Death of Fr. Maxim Sandovich: A 20th Century Carpatho-Russian
Martyr for Orthodoxy
Icon of St. Maxim Sandovich
St. Maximus Sandovich
Hieromartyr Maxim Sandovich (an icon from the OCA website)

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HOLY NEW HIEROMARTYR

MAXIMUS SANDOVICH

His Life and Martyrdom

Liturgical Service
Akathist Hymn in His Honor
The Saint John of Kronstadt Press
Liberty, Tennessee
1998
Assembled Book 1998
The Saint John of Kronstadt Press
1180 Orthodox Way
Liberty, TN 37095-4366 USA
Life translated from the Russian by Isaac E. Lambertsen.
Service and Akathist Hymn composed in English by the translator.
Translations copyright 1998.
All rights reserved by the translator
No part of this hook may he reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written
permission of
The Saint John of Kronstadt Press.
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 0-912927-94-1
Cover icon by the hand of Deacon Yakov Ferens
Photographs courtesy of Peter Dutkanicz

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Document Information
Document URL: http://lemko.org/religion/maxim/index.html
Original page design and layout by Walter Maksimovich
E-mail: walter@lemko.org
Originally Composed: April 7th, 1999.
Date last modified: December 1st, 2000