In 1903, the peasants of the village of Iza, one Sunday, sang in the church the Symbol of Faith, excluding from the eighth article of the Creed  the words "and from the Son ".  By this, the parishioners did in fact proclaim their return to Orthodoxy.  The village was immediately flooded with Hungarian gendarmes.  They began strip searches, and confiscated all the divine service books and even icons.  The gendarmes stayed for several months, demanding provisions from the peasants, and in all manners of ways oppressing them and mocking even the women.  For al long time the defenseless population endured all possible insults.  Finally, driven to despair, some of them started talk such as " It's time for the Russians to come and drive away the Magyars! " 

This was sufficient to institute proceedings for state treason.  Many peasants were arrested, and 22 were bound over for a trial.  The affair, named  "the first Maramoros-Sigot Process [trial]",  took place in 1904, where the charge of state treason was replaced with a vague charge for "instigation against Hungarian 
nationality".  The peasants Ioakim Vakarov, Vasilij Lazar', and Vasilij Kamen' were sentenced to 14 months in prison, and, on top of that, to an enormous monetary fine.  In addition, they were charged all the normous court expenses.  All these measures brought the peasants to ruin, since their economic well-being had been so strongly undermined by the billeting of the gendarmes and the administrative fines levied when the heads of the families were in detention.  Their land, homes, livestock, and domestic furnishings were sold at auction for non-payment.

The peasants returned from prison poor, and their families found shelter with their fellow villagers and lived on the means of the Orthodox community of the village of Iza.  But Ioakim Vakarov and his companions were not downcast, and worked at day labor.  Despite the fact the village of Iza is located a mere five versts [3 miles]  from the city, the government ordered that a gendarme barracks be built in the village with the peasants' money.  Soon Ioakim Vakarov was captured by the gendarmes and died under torture.  The peasants buried him without a priest, just singing "Svjatyj Bozhe" ["Holy God"].  The death of Vakarov merely fortified the Orthodox movement.  Many villages went over to Orthodoxy - Luchki, Tereblja, and others.  The peasants went about searching for a priest, and with this as their goal approached the Serbian bishop Bogdanovich in Budapest.  Bogdanovich feared conflict with the authorities and did not receive the delegation.  Then the peasants turned to Karlovcy, to Serbian Patriarch Brankovich (at that time, the Orthodox of the Hungarian part of the Empire were located in the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church).  It was not possible even to think about Russian priests.  Only later did Archbishop Antonij (Chrapovickij) extend the jurisdiction of the Russian Church over the Carpathians, but this required all the energy and talent of this outstanding bishop. 

Patriarch Brankovich described this visit as follows: 
"There appeared before me peasants from the village of Iza, who requested that I receive them into the bosom of the Orthodox Church and send them a priest.  I conversed with them for a long time, and at the end told them that, in view of the government's terror regime, I had not decided to send them a priest.  The Russian peasants were downcast, but then, as though waking up from their grief, loudly and forcefully said to me: `You are an Orthodox bishop, but we shall summon you to the Day of Judgment, and you will give an answer to the Lord Jesus Christ.'  Here I was embarrassed in spirit, and decided to fulfill my duty.  I summoned the priest Petrovich to them and . promised to send him to them.  But at that time, the Mukachevo Uniate bishop, learning that the village of Iza was receiving an Orthodox priest, hurried to Vienna and reported to the Emperor that, if an Orthodox priest should appear in this locality, then he, the bishop, would be without a diocese, since the people would quickly turn to Orthodoxy. 
And the King-Emperor [.??] completed the occasional religious rites, but the children were secretly sent to Bukovina to a Romanian priest, who baptized them.  The prayer house built by the peasants was destroyed by the gendarmes, and the faithful themselves were forbidden to gather for common prayers.  However, following Iza, entire villages began to turn to Orthodoxy.

In 1910, Hungarian Rus' received, finally, its own religious leader in the person of the priest-monk Aleksij (Kabaljuk).  Until that time, there had been a legend, passed down from generation to generation, that in the spring of 1910 [.??].  In the village of Lezhije, a woman died under torture.  The "martyr village" endured many things, but they did not renounce Orthodoxy.  Others sought safety in the forests and mountains. 
Hence, eleven girls, whom Father Aleksij's sister Vasilisa had exhorted, secretly received the tonsure, and withdrew to the mountains, built a home in the forest, and lived there according to the monastic rule. 
The gendarmes, finding out about this, found them, tore off their clothes, and drove them into the river dressed only in their shirts, held them in the icy water for two hours, and threw them into prison.  These are the names of the holy confessors: Marija Vakarova, Pelageja Smolik, Anna Vakarova, Marija Mador, Pelageja Tust', Pelageja Shcherban', Paraskeva Shcherban', Julijanna Azaj, Marija Prokun, Marija Dovhanich, and Anna Kamen'.

In 1910, the Orthodox people  being left without a priest, turned for assistance to Russia.  Candidates for ordination were sent to the Russian Jablochinskij monastery of the Cholm diocese: Vasilij Kamen', Vasilij Vakarov, and others.  Archbishop Jevlogij (Georgievskij) and Count V. A. Bobrinskij received them with love and settled them into the monastery.

The inhabitants of the village of Iza gathered for prayer at the house of the peasant Maksim Prokop, and his niece Julianna Prokop in 1913 suffered for Christ and became a holy confessor.  As a rather young lady she organized in the village the Orthodox women's community, which lived by the monastic rule.

On June 22, 1913, there began the second Maramorosh-Sigot Process -- the Hungarian crown prosecutor Andor Illes transferred to the court in Maramorosh Sigot case No. 5919/1913, in which he wrote: "I accuse Alexander Kabaljuk (monastic name Aleksej) , 36 years old, of the Uniate faith, a forestry worker (a Russian monk), born and living in Jasinja."  There were further listed another 94 accused, including the Orthodox priests Father Grigorij Hricak and Father Nikolaj Sabov, while the rest were the peasants of Iza.  Father Aleksij voluntarily returned from the USA.  "The aforesaid persons," wrote the public prosecutor, "are found to be in communication with Count Vladimir Bobrinskij, who is a Russian subject, president of the `Russian National Union',  and a member of the Duma and Synod, as well as with Orthodox Russian Bishops Evlogij of Cholm and Antonij of Zhitomir-Volynia, and with monks of the [Mount] Athos, Cholm, Kiev, Pochajev, and Jablochinskij monasteries, and are receiving financial support from them.  Along with these people, in addition with the doctor Roman Gerovskij, lawyer Aleksej Gerovskij, and engineer Georgij Gerovskij in Chernovcy (in Bukovina), they entered into an agreement whose goal is to turn the Uniate inhabitants of the state living in Maramorosh, Ugocha, and Pereja, to the Orthodox Russian faith. All this was done with the aim of uniting the aforesaid territories to the Russian state and placing them under the scepter of the Russian Tsar. 
They were guided partially by the representations of material benefit, and partially by their love for the Orthodox Russian faith, which serves the national Russian idea."

Count Bobrinskij, who had come especially for the trial, gave a worthy response, catching the  accusers in the elementary absurdity of the charges: ".It is indicated that in two taverns, the Orthodox presented "kopecks and rubles", and that this proves that the movement is supported from abroad.  What naivete!  Surely we would have been able to exchange the rubles for crowns earlier, before distributing them to the Hungarian Russians? . The prosecutor knows quite well that the Orthodox are not seeking material benefit, and are not getting rich.  They are being ruined by the fines, by the billeting of troops, and by the prison sentences.  But the prosecutor is right, quite right, when he says that these sacrifices are "guided by their love for the Orthodox Russian faith".  For this, of course, they were held in prison, for this they are now judged."  Father Aleksij had the last word.  He triumphantly proclaimed, "Where they seek Truth, that is a holy place, as a church.  Here stand the faithful and I, as their priest.  In this temple I swear that I am innocent, and did nothing against the native land.  All that we did, we did in the name of religion, and for that reason Christ shall have the last word in this matter."  The accused began to sob, touched by these words.  The President of the Senate impatiently shouted at Father Aleksij.  Father Aleksij continued his speech:
"Whatever the verdict, we shall accept it.  If it is our lot to suffer, we shall suffer in a sacred cause.  I have traveled three parts of the earth and I was in America, when I found out about the accusation and immediately hastened home, since love pulled me back to my native land.  If the flock suffers, the place of the shepherd is among the suffering.  Is there trouble there?" - he lifted his hands to Heaven - "there they know that we are guided only by religious truth, and not anti-government activity." 
("Russkij narodnyj Golos" [Russian National Voice], Uzhgorod, December 29, 1933).

The investigation lasted two months.  On March 3, 1914, the verdict was announced - Father Aleksij (Kabaljuk) was sentenced to four years and six months plus a fine of 100 crowns; Father Nikolaj Sabovok to three years; and the others from two and a half years to six months.  Soon after the conclusion of the trial, Emperor Nicholas II granted Father Aleksij a gold pectoral cross for his spiritual feat as a confessor, and molebens were served in the Orthodox churches of Russia to glorify his spiritual struggle.

At the time of the trial, the gendarmes stole at night into the village of Iza and grabbed Julianna Prokop with her sisters.  They were sent to the barracks, where they tried for a long time to force them to renounce Orthodoxy.  Then, having poured water on the frozen ground, the gendarmes drove the girls onto the street to frighten the villagers.  Here they stripped them and for a long time mercilessly beat them.  They forced out the confessors barefoot, with bare breast, and led them about the village, mocking them and hoping that they would renounce Orthodoxy. 

However, the streets of the village were empty, and the inhabitants with indignation regarded this as lawlessness, although they were unable to help.  The Uniate priest Andrej Azarij, who had called the police, ordered them to bring Julianna to him.  He again tried to persuade her to renounce Orthodoxy, and promised protection if she would, even if only pretending, renounce the "Muscovite faith"; and he said, "It is a shame that you, such a young girl, have condemned yourself to torture.:  But Julianna remained steadfast, and her torments continued for three months more.  Likewise, not one of Julianna's sisters renounced Orthodoxy.  In the beginning of 1914, there arrived from Russia to the village of Iza the priest-monks Father Amfilochij (Vasilij Kamen'), Father Matfej (Vasilij Vakarov), and Father Serafim (who was subsequently killed in the war).  They were immediately arrested and taken to the city of Chust.  The first two were released from prison and placed under house arrst, and Father Serafim was sent to the army.  When the First World War started, Father Amfilochij was arrested with forty peasants.  Father Amfilochij was sentenced to four years in prison.

Julianna Prokop was also arrested with her sisters and taken to the city of Chust.  Before the Russian army arrived in this city, the wardens freed the sisters.  After the withdrawal of the Russians, the sisters remained 
faithful to the Orthodox faith and gathered at night for prayer.  For spiritual guidance they visited Father Amfilochij in the Koshicy prison.  In 1917, all the sisters were again placed under house arrest, this time more severe.  They were required to appear three times a day in the gendarme office for interrogation and torture.  In 1918, the gendarmes beat Julianna until she was half dead.  Her entire body was covered with wounds, her head was fractured, and her nose was broken.  All these tortures were accompanied by persuasions to renounce, even if only for show, the confession of the Orthodox faith and the monastic way of life.  But Julianna did not renounce them.  The gendarmes took her, bloodied and disfigured, to the cellar and covered her with sand.  At the cellar they placed a housemaid, to prevent anyone from getting in.  On the fourth day, Julianna regained consciousness.  The gendarmes, not expecting that she would survive, took her to her father and called a doctor.  However, Julianna refused the doctor's assistance, and was healed by a miracle of God.  When the revolution took place in Hungary, they left the Orthodox Russians in peace.  Father Amfilochij continued to serve in Iza, and then tracked down the other priests who were Iza natives.  And the profession of Orthodoxy in Carpathian Rus' continued.

After the fall of Austro-Hungary, Sub-Carpathian Rus' found itself a component part of Czechoslovakia.  The pro-Catholic Czech government continued the struggle with Orthodoxy in Carpathian Rus'. 
The autonomy of Carpathian Rus' provided for by the San Germain Treaty of 1918 [sic] was not granted, but the dissemination of the Unia and "ukrainization" - Uniate cultural expansion - continued; and both one and the other quickly failed.  In 1939, 83% of the Carpatho-Russians voted for the Russian language in a referendum.  The young Czechoslovak government lacked a powerful repressive system, without which it could not stifle the rebirth of Orthodoxy.  Julianna Prokop was tonsured as a nun in 1924, with the name Paraskeva,  and became igumen of the women's monastery of the city of Maramorosh.  She is buried in the St. Nicholas Monastery in Mukachevo.

After returning from confinement, Father Aleksij (Kabaljuk) remained until the end of his life in the St. Nicholas Monastery founded by them in Iza near the church in which Father Ioann Rakovskij had served. 
He continued his missionary activity. Already in 1920, the entire population in the Maramorosh region villages of Iza, Bystryj, Horinchevo, Ujbarovo, Lipcha, Selishe, Tereblja, and Koshelevo had turned to Orthodoxy.  On August 19, 1921, Fr. Aleksij opened the Sobor of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church.  Delegates (more than 400 people) came to it from all Orthodox villages of the region.  The delegates adopted an Ustav [church regulations] and the official designation of "Karpato-russkaja Vostochnaja Pravoslavnaja Cerkov'" [Carpatho-Russian Eastern Orthodox Church]. 

Since Austro-Hungarian times, Sub-Carpathian Rus' had been in the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church.  Due to the persecutions of Orthodoxy in Russia, the assembly decided to remain in the Serbian jurisdiction, since the Serbian Church was the closest to the Russian, its hierarchy at that time were graduates of Russian theological schools, and the center of the Russian church emigration was located in Serbia.  Its leader, Metropolitan Antonij (Chrapovickij), significantly aided the Carpatho-Russians, and the noted missionary Archimandrite Vitalij (Maksimenko), who had been before the Revolution the manager of the printing press of the Pochajev Lavra [high-ranking monastery], was sent to Prjashev Rus'.  He founded the monastery of St. Job of Pochajev in Prjashevshchina, invited there the elders of the Valaam Monastery, and began to publish the newspaper "Pravoslavnaja Karpatskaja Rus'" [Orthodox Carpathian Rus']. 

Likewise, the noted Bitola Theological Seminary in Serbia helped Sub-Carpathian Rus', particularly its leading representatives, such as Bishop Ioann (Maksimovich) and venerable Iustin (Popovich), who served for some time in Prjashevshchina.  Sub-Carpathian Rus' took in approximately 11,000 "White Russian" emigrants, among whom were Fr. Vasilij Pronin, who had been starets and Schi-archimandrite, and who wrote a unique book on the history of Carpatho-Russian Orthodoxy (he died in 1996).

Nevertheless, re-born Orthodoxy in the Carpathians awaited yet another test -- the attempt at schism.  In the time of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the renovationist and ecumenist Meletius (Metaxakis) and his 
followers, "renowned" for their support of the Soviet renovationists and for their fierce persecutions of the Valaam monks who adhered to the old style [calendar] and did not accept the renovationism, Bishop Savvatij (Vrabec) was appointed to Carpathian Rus' by the Phanar [Constantinople Patriarchate] in opposition to the Serbian Church.  This was done with the support of the Czechoslovak government.  And again Fr. Aleksij (Kabaljuk) guarded Church canons.  It was possible to save the Carpatho-Russian Church from the pretensions of Constantinople, but this problem was not decisively solved until 1946, when Fr. Aleksij led the movement for unification of both jurisdictions to the Russian Orthodox Church, which was crowned with success and in this way the division was overcome.

Schi-archimandrite Aleksij (Kabaljuk) was a staunch proponent of the idea of the national unity of Carpatho-Russians with the Russian nation, and of unification of Sub-Carpathian Rus' with Russia.

On December 4, 1949, Archimandrite Aleksij departed to the Lord.  In 1998, Bishop Dositej, who had done so much for Orthodoxy in Sub-Carpathian Rus', was glorified to the ranks of saints by the Serbian Orthodox Church.  In the winter of 1999, the relics of Fr. Aleksij were found.  His body and vestments were found almost completely preserved, and only his feet and hands had decayed.  From his grave was extracted an icon of the Iverskaja icon of the Mother of God, placed there during the burial, which Fr. Aleksij had brought with him from [Mount] Athos.  On this icon, which had lain in the more than moist ground together with the holy relics of the spiritual father of Sub-Carpathian Rus', even the colors had not grown dull.

One would like to believe that the current canonization of Fr. Aleksij will be the beginning of the process of the glorification of the entire assembly of Carpatho-Russian saints, and that the St. Nicholas Monastery in Iza will be the Lavra [highest-ranking monastery] of the Rusins.