Saint Constantine of Merkushino

 

Saint Constantine of Merkushino. Egg tempera and gold on panel. 12x16" 2024. Collection of St. Elizabeth Orthodox Church, Poulsbo, WA.

Saint Constantine of Merkushino was a Russian priest in the Siberian village of Merkushino. His brief ministry began during the tumultuous Bolshevik revolution and Russian Civil War. The local villages wanted nothing to do with Communism and rose up in demonstration against the Bolsheviks. The Communists made an example by martyring Father Constantine and the church warden. As the martyrs were marched to the cemetery to dig their own graves, Saint Constantine chanted the funeral service for himself and his companion. He was martyred on July 14, 1918, at the age of 22. The parish of Saint Elizabeth Orthodox Church in Poulsbo, WA was given a sizeable relic of St. Constantine’s finger, and thus commissioned this icon.

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