Fr. Vitaly Redka, the rector of the Church of the Holy Myrrh-bearers in the city of Kerch, Crimea, reposed on January 20, 2015, following a prolonged illness, leaving his wife, Matushka Zinaida, to take care of five children.

Matushka still can’t hold back her tears when she tells the children about their father, about how they spent so many years together in love and harmony. This time with their papa, a man of amazing faith and love, was the happiest and most joyful time for them.

The life of a widow with many children is full of sorrows and hardships, and this family is no exception.

After the death of its husband and father, the family had to endure much grief and many deprivations until they finally got some help. They had no proper housing, but only huddled in a damp, rotten apartment. They have found their own home now, but still need a lot of help to finish the construction and fully settle in.

Matushka Zinaida’s younger children are still in school, including her daughters who are in college. The two older daughters sing in a choir, earning very small salaries.

Matushka suffers from chronic inflammation of the joints, and the children, who spent many years living in a basement apartment, also suffer from poor health and are in need of constant treatment.

Fr. Vitaly Alexandrovich Redka was born to a simple Soviet family on February 23, 1964. His father worked as a driver and his mother as a school teacher. His parents weren’t religious—only his believing grandmother would go to church, many miles away. Fr. Vitaly himself came to faith at a conscious age, after the death of his parents.

He met his future Matushka Zinaida in Crimea while on break from school in the summer of 1990. Their acquaintanceship was very romantic, and the young couple realized almost immediately that they were meant for each other. Just six months later, in 1991, they were married.

An active revival of the Christian faith and Church life was beginning throughout the country in the early 1990s, and the Church became the most important part of Father’s life. The future pastor would take on any work at the parish for the glory of God—so strongly did his heart yearn for Him. And his whole family—Matushka and their young daughters—followed after him.

In 2001, he became a priest, and served his first Divine Liturgy on the feast of Pascha. It was a great event for Fr. Vitaly and his family.

With this first Pascha began his difficult priestly ministry, but he was completely ready to bear any heavy cross that the Lord would send him. His whole life was attuned to uncomplaining obedience to the Lord and the endurance of many sorrows.

Fr. Vitaly’s church was located in a pre-revolutionary non-residential building. There was no electricity or heating for the first six months. They just managed to build the furnace in time for the cold Crimean winter with its piercing winds. The family has always faced financial difficulties, and it was difficult for them just to heat the two rooms they lived in.

The church was often half-empty. The core parishioners were old women and mothers with their young children, but Fr. Vitaly was especially devoted to the Divine services. His older daughters soon began to sing on the kliros, and little by little, young Ilya began to help in the altar.

The couple raised all their children in strict faith. They lived below the poverty line but never thought about themselves, always living one day at a time, hoping in the Lord.

Fr. Vitaly was a great ascetic and faster, very strict, firstly towards himself. He is remembered as always being kind, joyful, and focused on inner prayer.

In the fall of 2013, tragedy struck the family when Fr. Vitaly was given the terrible diagnosis of open pulmonary tuberculosis. Perhaps living in an unheated, damp room had had a detrimental effect on his health. They found out about his sickness too late, already in the final stage, and all the doctors’ efforts proved to be in vain.

This family has never had a sweet life, especially not now, living on memories of their beloved husband and father.