Adrian Troitsky

Holy Hieromartyr Adrian Troitsky was an archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, put to death at Yoshkar-⁠Ola on 15 February 1938 and numbered in 2002 in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The sources give no day of commemoration. The Russian source gives 1889 as the year of birth, which does not fit his life (the psalm-⁠reader's examination in 1890); the record gives 1872, which fits better.

He was born on 12 (according to other sources, 13) June in the village of Bilyar-⁠Ozero, Chistopol district, Kazan governorate, into the family of the psalm-⁠reader (later deacon) Alexander Troitsky. He graduated from the theological school of Cheboksary, entered the town school of Cheboksary, but did not finish it. In 1890 he passed the psalm-⁠reader's examination, in 1893 the examination for the title of village teacher. From 1894 to 1897 he taught at the parish church school of Solyanovo, and from 5 August 1896 to 20 November 1897 was also psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Archangel Michael in Cheboksary. From 1897 to 1899 he did military service, and on his discharge, on 23 February 1899, took the place of psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Cheboksary.

On 3 October 1902 he passed the deacon's examination at the commission attached to the Kazan seminary. On 2 March 1903 he was ordained deacon, and on 3 February 1904 was assigned to the church of the village of Pestretsy, Kazan district (he served there more than six years). On 7 April 1910 he passed the priest's examination, on 11 April 1910 was ordained priest and appointed rector of the church of the Holy Trinity in the village of Surty (Mikhailovskoe), Tsarevokokshaysk district, Kazan governorate. In this church Adrian served more than 27 years. On 7 September 1912, together with Hegumen Seraphim (Baklanov) and the priest Daniil Fyodorov, he went to a pagan grove to dissuade the Mari from pagan rites. On 31 December 1912, for his missionary work, Father Adrian received an archpastoral blessing. From 1910 to 1917 he taught the Law of God in several schools. In 1914 he received the hip-⁠cloth, and in 1917 the skufia. With his wife, Vera Feodorovna, he had six children.

In 1918 he was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a peasant uprising in the village of Knyazhna (Danilovo) and imprisoned at Kazan; the charge was not proved, and after two weeks in prison Father Adrian was released. Later he was deprived of electoral rights, and in 1919 an investigation was begun against him again. The parish he led joined the church administration of the old churchmen, organised in 1925 at Krasnokokshaysk. In 1920 he received the kamilavka, in 1935 he was raised to the rank of archpriest, and in 1936 he received the palitsa. On 28 December 1937, immediately after the service, he was arrested by NKVD officers and taken to the city prison of Yoshkar-⁠Ola. He was charged with organizing a counter-⁠revolutionary group, working to disintegrate the collective farm and agitating against the elections to the Supreme Soviet. The only interrogation took place on 10 February 1938, and Archpriest Adrian Troitsky did not admit guilt. On 13 February 1938 the special troika of the UNKVD for the Mari ASSR sentenced him to death. The sentence was carried out on 15 February, at 21:00. He was buried in an unknown common grave. On 17 July 2002, by decision of the Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Adrian Troitsky was numbered, on the proposal of the Yoshkar-⁠Ola diocese, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.