Hilarion Solovyov

Holy Hieromartyr Hilarion Solovyov, a priest, was born in 1868 in the village of Kavelino in the Dmitriev district of Oryol province, in the family of Maxim Solovyov. Of the life of this priest who suffered for Christ we know only the time of his arrests and exiles, that is, his very martyrdom. Father Hilarion was first arrested in 1931, after which the sentence was exile in Kazakhstan; the persecuted servant of the Church came to serve his term in the settlement of Maikuduk in the Karaganda region.

Of Father Hilarion's life in exile we learn from the investigation file: living in the settlement of Maikuduk in the Karaganda region, Solovyov continued the work of a servant of the altar, performing at home baptisms, funerals and feast-⁠day services. The file was drawn up for the second arrest, made by the authorities in December 1937. As was usual then, false witnesses were brought, whose testimonies are reflected in the charge: for anti-⁠Soviet propaganda, consisting in writing a counter-⁠revolutionary slogan with the help of one of the schoolboys of the settlement. After all this the file states: the priest Hilarion Solovyov has been arrested and condemned.

In December 1937 the troika attached to the UNKVD of the Karaganda region sentenced the priest Hilarion Solovyov to the supreme penalty, death by shooting. The sentence was carried out on 8 December.

He is commemorated on 8 December and on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (new style, a movable day).