Maxim Timofeyevich Sandovich (Russian: Максим Тимофеевич Сандович, Polish: Maksym Sandowicz; 1 February 1888 – 6 August 1914) is a New Martyr and Orthodox saint.

[6] The reason for Maxim Sandovich's disappointment in the Greek-Catholic Church was the fact that by the beginning of the twentieth century the Greek-Catholic monasteries and theological seminaries of Eastern Galicia, with the assistance of the Austrian and Polish administrations, finally turned into centers of Ukrainian propaganda and centers of the spread of Ukrainian identity.

[8] In the same year Maxim Sandovich went to Russia, where secondary school education was not compulsory for candidates seeking admission to the Orthodox theological seminary, nor for the mere acceptance of priestly ordination.

[9] In this monastery he was noticed by the archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Volhynia and Zhytomir,[6] who was one of the coordinators funded by the Russian state for the promotion of Orthodoxy in Galicia.

This Hierarchy attached special importance to mobilizing missionaries from Galicia, who were supposed to obtain theological education in Russia and then return to their native areas as promoters of Orthodoxy.

[6] According to Anna Veronica Wendland, the initiator of this conversion was Sandovich, who, in consultation with the uniate priest Teodor Durkot from Zdynia, suggested the peasants of Grab to solve their conflict with the local clergyman with organizing an Orthodox pastoral institution.

[13] Small religiousness of the Greek Catholic peasants and the ease with which they manipulated the Galician Russophiles, proclaiming the superiority of the Orthodox Church and the necessity of joining Galicia to Russia, raised the anxiety of the Austrian administration in an increasingly tense international situation.

[14] One of the means of limiting Russophile movement was the recognition as an illegal pastoral activity of Orthodox priests ordained in Russia, who did not have the consent of the Metropolitan of Bukovina to serve in his Galicia jurisdiction.

Sandovich did not have such permission, but claimed that his direct superior was the Patriarch of Constantinople, and that the legitimacy of the Orthodox Church in Austria meant that any ordained cleric of this confession could operate in Galicia.

Maxim Sandovich was arrested for eight days and sentenced to a fine of 400 crowns after the first service in the Grab,[12] defined by the local authorities as one of Orthodox centers and pro-Russian propaganda.

He and other missionaries who came from Russia offered low prices for religious services, raised funds from the Russian sources for the construction of new temples.

In the rural communities that have gone through Orthodoxy, the subsequent detention of the clergy tightened his ties with the faithful and contributed to his recognition as a martyr, persecuted by the authorities.

In Hungarian Ruthenia, where the movement for Orthodoxy was even stronger than in Galicia, the process of 94 peasants, who 94 advocated conversion, accused of espionage and treason, was conducted between March 1913 and February 1914 in Marmaroschsiget, ended in a recognition of defendants guilty and punishing them with a long prison term.

[14] In the opinion of Włodzimierz Osadczy: "On the eve of the war, the show trial over the Orthodox agitators was to be a warning to all forces sympathizing to Russia, and not only for the Rusyns but also for the growing power of Polish national democrats".

[14] All accused in this trial were charged with espionage and betrayal of state expressed in the desire to detach "Ruthenian lands" from Austro-Hungary and join them in the Russian Empire.

[20] On the twenty-ninth day of the trial, he was interrogated about the draft found in his notes, in which the clergyman contained his thoughts on Orthodox Church and the Union of Brest.

[23] Contrary to the objectives of the Austrian authorities, who intended to ban the further activities of Russophliles during the war with Russia, the process not only was not a heavy blow to this movement, but contributed to the spread of his ideas.

[24] "Orthodox martyrdom in Galicia" was also publicized by the Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Volhynia, who in his eparchy issued a special circular on this subject and ordered after each Holy Liturgy to celebrate an additional service for the arrested russophiles.

[22] Hearings of the accused and witnesses proved the links between the Orthodox movement in Galicia and Russia, but the evidence gathered was not enough to confirm the allegation of treason and espionage contained in the indictment.

[21] The co-accused with him in the trial did differently Stepan Bendasiuk and Vasyl Koldra, who immediately left for Russia and were taken there by Vladimir Bobrinsky, president of the Galician-Russian Society.

After the outbreak of World War I, in which Austria-Hungary and Russia found themselves in opposing blocks of fighting countries and the announcement of mobilization in Galicia, he was arrested on 4 August with his family:[23] himself, his wife Pelagia, brother Mikołaj and father Tymoteusz were imprisoned in Gorlice.

Witnesses to his execution were other residents of Gorlice and surrounding towns imprisoned on charges of Russophlilia sympathies, including members of the cleric's family.