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==Life==
Maxim Sandovich was born into the family of a prosperous farmer, Timothy Sandovich, and his wife, Christina, in the village of Zdyna, Galicia. His father served as the choir director in the local parish. After finishing four years of study at the local high school in Novy Sanch, Maxim crossed the border into Russia to become a [[novice]] at the [[Pochaev Lavra of the Dormition of the Theotokos|Pochaev Lavra]] in Volynia. Subsequently, he attended the Orthodox [[seminary]] in Zhitomir. Completing his studies he married a young Orthodox woman, Pelagia, and was [[ordination|ordained]] as a [[deacon]] and then to the [[priest]]hood before returning to his home.
It was not very long before the Austrian militia discovered his Orthodox pastoral and [[missionary]] service as he was denounced by a Ukrainian teacher by the name of Leos, in 1912. Immediately the Austrian gendarmes put Fr. Maxim in chains and sent him to prison in Lvov. There he was held for two years without a trial or inquest while being abused horribly and living in equally bad conditions. Then as World War I was to begin he was released for lack of evidence.
