Venerable Martyr Niphon and Martyr Alexander

Nifont (Vyblov), born in 1882 at Yeysk to a peasant family, became a monk at Khvalynsk monastery on the Volga and was ordained a hieromonk. From 1925 he served the church in the village of Berezovy Khutor in the Saratov region. Arrested in December 1930 together with Hieromonk Anthony (Vinnikov), who was visiting him, he was held in the prison at Syzran, where the authorities could bring no charge against him. He died there on 30 August 1931.

Alexander Medem, son of a senator, devoted himself to farming and was repeatedly arrested after the revolution. He is described as Nifont's spiritual son. Banished to Syzran in 1928, he was arrested again in autumn 1930 and died of tuberculosis in the prison hospital there on 1 April 1931.