This week in Christian history: Handel’s ‘Messiah’ debuts, Medieval abbess baptized on Easter, Russian Orthodox reformer killed

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, April 09, 2023

Reform-minded Russian Orthodox priest killed – April 10, 1906

This week marks the anniversary of when Georgy Apollonovich Gapon, a Russian Orthodox priest who supported political and social reform in pre-Soviet Russia, was hanged by extremists.

The leader of the Assembly of Russian Factory Workers of the city of St. Petersburg in 1905, Gapon helped to organize a large, peaceful march to the Winter Palace to demand reforms.

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However, the mass demonstration was met with violence, as Tsarist troops attacked the marchers, killing around 200 people and wounding around 800 more (including Gapon) in an event known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Gapon was killed by members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party when evidence surfaced that he was working with Tsarist secret police as part of an effort to crack down on radicalism.