Daniel Meshchaninov

Saint Daniel Meshchaninov, hieromartyr, was a priest of the Russian Church and was shot on 9 December 1937 at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. He was numbered among the new martyrs of Russia by decision of the Holy Synod of 12 March 2002, for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated on 26 November, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Serpukhov.

He was born in 1870 in the village of Novinki, Serpukhov district, Moscow governorate, into the family of a poor peasant. After receiving a basic education he took work as a labourer while still young. In 1916 he was called up into the army, where he served as a private until 1917. After returning from the army, until 1920 he was a labourer. From 1920 he served as psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Protection of the Mother of God in the village of Martyanovo, Serpukhov district. In 1932 he was ordained priest by Bishop Innocent (Letyaev) and assigned to the same church.

In the night of 28 November 1937 he was arrested and held in the Serpukhov prison; then he was transferred to Taganka prison in Moscow. On 5 December 1937 the NKVD troika for the Moscow region, under article 58-10 of the criminal code of the RSFSR, sentenced him to death by shooting for counter-⁠revolutionary activity. He was shot on 9 December 1937 at the Butovo range near Moscow and buried in an unknown common grave. The church of the Protection in Martyanovo was demolished.