“All three died in terrible agony of unimaginable pain and the pain remained at the time of death on their faces. But just a few hours, and I saw a completely different person. [If] they even can be called faces,because they shone and shone. It was not my exalted perception, all noted a strange transformation of persons – all three were bright, quiet and peaceful smile.”

(Georgy Gupalo, on the murdere three Optima monks in 1993)