The family of Evgeny Stefanovich Parfenyuk learned about the beginning of the Great Patriotic War even before the official appeal of Molotov. They lived in Brest Region, the household woke up from the rumble of German airplanes and the sounds of explosions. As soon as the first underground and partisan groups were formed, the Parfenyuks began to actively help them.
Archpriest Vitaly Honovets, rector of the garrison church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Brest Fortress, candidate of theology:
Together with his brother, Evgeny Parfenyuk was active in collecting clothes, food. He helped the partisans, and also helped the people whom the Germans sent to captivity. He and his brother also came to the echelons that stopped in Brest, and to these freight cars with people who were transported like cattle to Germany and brought food, because these people were often hungry.
The whole family of the priest Stefan Parfenyuk helped Red Army prisoners, the encircled people. They learned information from the occupation authorities, passed it to the partisans, served as liaisons.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Stefan Parfenyuk served in the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Ostromechevo. During the first days of the war the church was damaged by shells, but the priest, together with his sons, restored the church.
