Demetrius Kasatkin

Holy Hieromartyr Demetrius Kasatkin, a priest, was born on 24 October 1884 in the village of Boris-⁠Gorodok, in the Mozhaisk district of the Moscow province, in the family of a psalm-⁠reader. He died in a camp, on 28 October 1942, at Kuloi, near Arkhangelsk, and was buried in an unknown common grave. He was glorified among the saints in 2006. He is commemorated on 28 October, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 5 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, and on 1 November, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Arkhangelsk Metropolis.

He graduated in 1900 from the clerical school in Zvenigorod and in 1906 from the Bethany seminary and was sent as a teacher to the parish school in the village of Milyatino, in the Mozhaisk district. In 1916 he was ordained priest at the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian at the Gvozdnya graveyard, in the Bronnitsy district, where he served twenty years. In the 1930s, with the support of the parishioners, Father Demetrius resisted attempts to close the church, which aroused the displeasure of the authorities. On 26 November 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Kolomna, then moved to Taganka, in Moscow. He was charged with giving sermons, holding processions and with agitation against the collective farms. The priest rejected the charge of agitation against the collective farms as baseless, and said that processions and sermons were among his duties. On 5 December the special troika of the NKVD of the Moscow region sentenced him to ten years in a camp. He served his sentence in the White Sea-⁠Baltic camp, at Medvezhyegorsk.

He asked for a review of the case, pointing out the injustice of the decision: his guilt before Soviet power was that he was a priest and had served and performed religious rites that Soviet laws do not forbid, and this could not be grounds for imprisonment. His request was refused. In August 1940 he was moved to the Talazh section of the Kuloi camp, near Arkhangelsk. Forced labour undermined his health. He departed to the Lord in detention, on 28 October 1942. His name was entered in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by decision of the Holy Synod of 26 December 2006.