Venerable Martyr Isaaki II of Optina

Isaac, born Ivan Bobrakov in 1865 in the Oryol province, entered the Optina monastery as a novice in 1884, became a deacon in 1898 and a hieromonk in 1902. In 1914 the brothers elected him abbot, and he was the last abbot of Optina before its closure after the revolution. He was imprisoned for months in 1929 and again in 1932.

In 1937 he was charged with organizing an underground monastery and refused to give false testimony. Sentenced by an NKVD troika, he was shot on 8 January 1938 in the Tula region and buried secretly in a forest. He was canonized locally in 1996 and for the whole Russian Church in 2000.