Gabriel Maslennikov

Holy Hieromartyr Gabriel Maslennikov was a priest of the Russian Church in the Ryazan region. He was born in March 1871 at Mikhailov and was shot on 18 November 1937 at Ryazan. He was canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church of 13 to 16 August 2000. His commemoration is on 18 November, the day of his shooting.

He was born in the city of Mikhailov, Ryazan province, into the family of the blacksmith Mikhail Ivanovich and Olga Semyonovna Maslennikov. At first he learned his father's trade. From 1893 to 1896 he served in the 171st regiment in Warsaw, with the rank of corporal. He took part in the Russo-⁠Japanese war, was wounded and received, for valour, the badge of distinction of the Military Order. During the war he was taken prisoner. After his release from captivity and his return home at the end of military service, he married and had eleven children. He worked as a blacksmith, renting a forge at Pecherskiye Vyselki, in the Mikhailov district, then in the village of Priluchye. The inhabitants of the city of Mikhailov elected him in 1920 mayor of the city.

But Gabriel's dream was to become a priest, and in 1924, after examinations on knowledge of the service, the Holy Scriptures and the foundations of Orthodox teaching, he was ordained deacon by the archbishop of Ryazan. He served at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Makovo, Mikhailov district, and after ordination to the priesthood at the church of the Protection in the village of Samodurovka, in the same district. On 11 March 1931 he was arrested by the political police and sentenced to five years in a labour camp in Kazakhstan. After his release he returned to his native region and served at the Transfiguration church in the village of Vnukovo, Mikhailov district.

On 16 October 1937 Father Gabriel was arrested a second time, on a charge of counter-⁠revolutionary propaganda, and held in the prison in the town of Skopin, then taken to Ryazan. He was accused of having carried on among the people active counter-⁠revolutionary religious propaganda and of having kept close ties with the arrested priests Akinfiev and Amelin, and that, after the arrest of Priest Gregory Amelin, he gave material support to his family. On 12 November he was condemned by the three-⁠man tribunal of the political police on a charge of anti-⁠Soviet and religious propaganda, and on 18 November he was shot. The place of burial is not known.