KURILOVO, Russia – They marched in a blistering snowstorm early on a dim Saturday morning, a motley group of about 40 gold-toothed babushkas, young Russian soldiers, and bearded Orthodox priests. Hunched over in the wind, the procession made its way to the grave of Yevgeny Rodionov – Russia’s new unofficial soldier-saint, a casualty of the war in Chechnya who is venerated by thousands of Orthodox Christians for his refusal to renounce his faith in the face of certain death.

“He was a hero who stood up against terrorists and defended his country,” said a 20-year-old officer in training, Artyom, after visiting the grave. “We need more soldiers like him in Russia, soldiers who are not afraid to die for what they believe in.”

Pilgrims have been flocking to this small town outside Moscow to honor Rodionov, a 19-year-old private in the Russian border guards who was held captive for 100 days by Muslim Chechen rebels in 1996. He was finally beheaded after refusing to convert to Islam or to remove a small silver cross he had worn around his neck since he was 10 years old.

Though he has yet to be canonized by Russia’s Orthodox Church, Rodionov is already being treated as a saint. His icon hangs in at least 26 Orthodox churches from Russia’s Far East to Ukraine. In one St. Petersburg church, he stands in full uniform, a rifle slung over his shoulder and a halo around his head, next to images of the Virgin Mary and Christ. Russian soldiers kneel in prayer before his image and carry laminated cards bearing his portrait. Countless songs and poems have been written in honor of “Zhenya,” the diminutive of Rodionov’s name.

With hundreds of soldiers dying every year as the brutal war in Chechnya drags on, Rodionov’s story seems to have struck a chord with Russians looking for meaning amidst the suffering.

This December 11 will mark 10 years since Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian president, first sent Russian troops to suppress a separatist movement in the mainly Muslim southern republic of Chechnya. After suffering an embarrassing military defeat, Russia withdrew its forces in 1996, leaving Chechnya with de facto independence. President Putin launched a second campaign in 1999 and Russian soldiers are now fighting a war of attrition with a separatist guerrilla army. In desperation, radical separatists have taken the war beyond Chechnya’s borders, and suicide bombings and hostage-takings – including the Beslan school massacre in September – have killed more than 1,000 people in the last two years.

“This is a dark time for Russia and Zhenya, his story, brings some light into people’s lives,” said his mother, Lyubov Rodionova, 52. “He was a victim of politics, of war, like a lamb led to the slaughter.”

Mrs. Rodionova said that, with one exception, her son was a typical Russian boy. He hung out with his friends, played the guitar, and practiced martial arts. But in a country where atheism had been a tenant of the state until recently, Rodionov was a devout Christian, attending mass every Sunday.

“I didn’t understand why he was going, I was a member of the Party for 25 years. But I didn’t interfere,” Mrs. Rodionova said.

When he was 18, Rodionov set off for the two years of military service required of every young Russian man. He joined the border guards and was assigned to monitor the internal border between Chechnya and the Russian republic of Ingushetia.

On February 16, 1996, his mother received a telegram saying he had desert ed his post and gone missing three days earlier. Unable to believe it, Mrs. Rodionova journeyed to the border herself. She learned from the local community that a battle had taken place and that her son had been taken captive by Chechen rebels. She told Rodionov’s superiors, but they said there was no way they could secure his release.

“I think that’s one of the reasons people love him, because he was abandoned by his country but he never betrayed it,” she said.

She hunted through war-riven Chechnya for the next nine months, handing out photocopied pictures of Rodionov and begging for information. She met with top rebel leaders, including Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, and was severely beaten by Mr. Basayev’s brother.

Mrs. Rodionova eventually discovered how her son had died after meeting with his former captors.

“I begged them to tell me that it wasn’t that way, that he wasn’t offered the choice to live and refused,” she said. “But they said it was true, that they had offered him the chance to convert to Islam and join them, that they’d told him to remove his cross, but he didn’t.”

Mrs. Rodionova paid a ransom of $4,000 to find out the location her son’s unmarked grave and, with the help of a half-dozen of Rodionov’s fellow soldiers, dug up his body with her own hands.

She brought it back to the small town where Rodionov had grown up and buried him in the local cemetery. After hearing the story of how he died, the local church raised funds to erect an enormous cross over the grave. Local press outlets picked up on the story and eventually it was carried nationwide. Mrs. Rodionova soon began to receive letters of condolence from across the country. The pilgrims began showing up soon after.

Before long, icons were being made in his image and thousands were petitioning the church to make Rodionov a saint. The church has yet to accede, but seems likely to do so.

“Anyone who is familiar with Zhenya’s story wants him to be canonized, but officially the committee on canonization has deemed it a little too early. If you want my opinion, he should be canonized tonight,” said the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for the armed forces, Father Dmitry.

Father Dmitry said the church does not sanction icons being made in Rodionov’s honor and other forms of veneration, “but the story of Zhenya is so powerful and touching that some people won’t wait.”

He said the church also worries that Rodionov is being used by some to portray the conflict in Chechnya as a holy war against Islam.

“The atrocities that are being committed are not sanctioned by Islam, they are using their religion to legitimize terrorism,” he said.

Human-rights advocates and some Western governments have accused Russian forces of carrying out atrocities of their own in Chechnya. Human rights groups and journalists have documented countless cases of murder, torture, and disappearances in Chechnya perpetrated by Russian soldiers.

Mrs. Rodionova said she isn’t sure who is to blame for what’s happening in Chechnya, but she does not believe most of the young men serving there are responsible. Since her son’s death, she has devoted her time to helping Russian conscripts in Chechnya. Life is notoriously difficult for conscripts in Russia’s demoralized and underfunded army, with most scraping by on scarce supplies and subject to brutal hazing. Mrs. Rodionova has made 29 trips to the region to bring them food, medicine, and other goods. Donations pour in from across the country so she can purchase supplies and finance her trips.

In the tiny apartment where she lives alone – she was divorced from Rodionov’s father, who died six days after his son – Mrs. Rodionova proudly shows off photos from her many trips to Chechnya.

But while she has become a sort of mother figure to soldiers there and thousands now see her son as a national hero, Mrs. Rodionova said that hasn’t filled the gap left by Rodionov’s death.

“I am proud of what my son did and of how important he is to so many people,” she said. “And I have my work with the soldiers. But I’ll never have other children; I’ll never have grandchildren. Without Zhenya, I’m a person without a future.”