Emilian Panasevich

Holy Hieromartyr Emilian Panasevich, a priest, received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 3 December 1937, at Tikhvin, in the Leningrad region. He is counted among the martyrs in the company of Archpriest John Sarv, killed on the same day for their faith.

With Archpriest John Sarv, fourteen people were imprisoned as accused in the Tikhvin prison: seven priests, the abbess of the Tikhvin Presentation Convent and six laymen. All were declared a single counter-⁠revolutionary group that had allegedly acted in the city of Tikhvin, and its leader was declared the dean of the city, John Sarv; the whole file was titled Sarv Ivan Romanovich and others. All the clergy in the case were shot, and the others received ten years in camps.

Five priests and the abbess Ioannicia refused, despite tortures, to admit guilt and to give testimony against the others, showing a rare example of united Christian courage. Archpriest John Sarv, the venerable martyr Arsenius Dmitriev, the venerable martyr Ioannicia Kozhevnikova and the priests Basil Kandelabrov, Nicholas Pokrovsky, Emilian Panasevich and Nicholas Zelenov were shot at Tikhvin on 3 December 1937.

He is commemorated on 3 December, on 7 February in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (new style), and in the synaxes of the saints of Saint Petersburg, of Smolensk and of Solovki.