The priest of god Yakov Stepanovich Bondar was born in 1888 in the village of Trubikh, in the Litinsk district of the Voronezh province, to pious parents. He married in 1915.
1. Introduction
The priest of god Yakov Stepanovich Bondar was born in 1888 in the village of Trubikh, in the Litinsk district of the Voronezh province, to pious parents. He married in 1915.
At the time of the crudest persecutions against religion in the Soviet Union, my father, a teacher and a believer, was unable to teach children, since at that time it was demanded that he teach that there is no God.
And so, Papa was ordained to the priesthood. It was obvious that he had been attracted to the priesthood from childhood. When he was a little boy he used to take his grandmother's kerchief and throw it across his shoulders; and from a little cup, in which there were pieces of bread in some kind of fruit juice, he would "commune" the children with a little spoon... And it would all be so mysterious and solemn, so that it was said in his family that a future priest was growing up.
And what a priest he was! How the people loved him! He was a real Christian.
The first time he was arrested was in 1929, when he was sent to work on the White Sea Canal. When, after completing his sentence, he arrived to serve out his "voluntary" exile in the Tambov province, the local authorities offered him a job with them, but Papa refused it, since he had given a vow to serve God and preach His word. He heard in reply, "You'll wind up back where you were." Later, that's what happened. Papa was just two months from the end of his exile sentence when they seized him again in 1937 and sentenced him to ten years in Komi, where he perished.
His grave is, of course, unknown. When my mother died in 1962, my sister Nina began to see Papa in dreams every night. He would come home and keep looking for something but, not finding it, would leave. Nina recounted the dream to one elderly woman, who advised her to have a funeral served for Papa, since he was searching for his place. My sister took a little earth from Mama's grave and went to the priest, and he served the funeral service for Priest Yakov. Then he told her to bury the earth in Mama's grave. From that time on Papa no longer appeared in dreams. In 1989 I was in Russia and we, all the sisters, went to Mama's grave. I buried in the grave a little cross that had been blessed on the Lord's Sepulchre, and also asked Papa's blessing for my future... I became overwrought, as though I had only just buried them. But that's how it had turned out — after all, I had not been present at either Mama's or Papa's funeral.
