Gregory Garyaev

Holy Hieromartyr Gregory Garyaev, a priest, was born on 29 January 1878 in the village of Pyanteg in the Cherdyn district, into a priest's family: his father, Simeon Evangelovich Garyaev, was the rector of the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah, and his mother was Anfisa Varlaamovna. In 1871 the first village school for peasant children had been opened in the house of Archpriest Simeon, later turned into a people's school, where Gregory received his primary education.

In 1900 he finished the theological seminary in Perm. On 9 June of that year he was made a reader by Bishop Peter (Losev) of Perm and Solikamsk and appointed psalmist at the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the village of Nikulino. In August 1900 he was ordained deacon, and on 10 September priest, at the church of Saints Peter and Paul in the village of Kosmo-⁠Damianskoe, in the Solikamsk district. On 11 December 1903, at the request of the parishioners and his own, he was moved to the Saviour church in the town of Solikamsk. In the large parish, with a single priest, he zealously carried many duties: from 1904 he was a member of the district diocesan school council, served on committees auditing the budget of the theological school, was a secretary, taught religion in the town's schools, was a treasurer and more. He received as awards the epigonation in 1904, the skufia in 1907 and the kamilavka in 1915.

In 1918, in the wave of repressions in Perm province, he was arrested and taken to Perm, where he was shot by Red Army soldiers on 8 September, the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God (21 September on the new calendar). In the newspaper of the provincial executive committee, on 9 October 1918, a list was published of those shot as a reply to the attempt on the members of the Extraordinary Commission, in which under number 21 appeared Gorlyaev [Garyaev] Semyon Grigorievich, priest, Black Hundredist. According to a witness, his shooting took place at the fifth verst of the Siberian road, as did that of Archpriest Alexander Shklyaev. After the White army occupied Perm, on 8 May 1919, on the Siberian road, at the fourth verst from the city, on a refuse dump, eight bodies were dug up, seven of clergy and one of a layman. The body of the priest Gregory Garyaev was recognised by relatives. The funeral service was held on 13 May by the council of clergy headed by Bishop Boris (Shipulin) and they were buried at the Bishops' cemetery by the Transfiguration cathedral.

His grandson, Gennady Denisov, testifies that Father Gregory had been buried in a common grave. The dead man was recognised by a brother by the monograms embroidered on his clothes, G. G. S., since the face could not be recognised because of the beatings. Later the authorities set up a zoo there, and at one time, above his grave, beside the zoo wall, stood a camel's cage.

His family had eight children. At the moment of arrest he was able to tell his wife, Vera Vasilievna, to keep the family together. In 1919 the family left with the retreating White army for Kurgan, and in Kungur the priest's wife altered the children's records, leaving the names but writing a different place of birth. The family lived in fear, in hiding, then Vera Vasilievna moved to the village of Torgovishche, in the Suksun district, where she was a teacher and later a school director. The Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Church in 2000 glorified him among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He is commemorated on 22 September, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 14 February, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Perm Metropolis (new style, the last two being movable days).