Shimonakh Iliya (in the world Ilya Yakovlevich Ganzha) lived in Makeevka from 1937 to 1946. Already a century old man, he came here presumably from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, whose inhabitants were forced to flee from their native monastery from the persecution of the godless government. There are only speculations about how he got to the Lavra. It is only known for certain that for many years the schema monk asceticised in the Ilyinsky skete of the Holy Mount Athos. Before the revolution, many Russian monks had to leave the fertile land. Among them, most likely, was Elijah.
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