John Bystrov

Holy Hieromartyr John Bystrov, a priest, was born in 1888 or 1889 in the village of Semyany in the Vasilsursk district of the Nizhny Novgorod province. His parents had only daughters and wished for a son, and his mother prayed earnestly, vowing that if a boy were born he would be dedicated to the Lord. When he was born, they named him John.

In the village the priest John Flerov had built the church of the Holy Archangel Michael, and the building of it and the service of the zealous pastor had a considerable influence on the young man, who after the gymnasium had become a teacher in his native village. More and more often he remembered the word given by his mother, and the thought that he was unfaithful to God weighed on him more and more. When he turned twenty-⁠seven, he said to his mother: "Mother, I must fulfil the promise. I want to myself." He married, was ordained and served in the village of Sakany in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. The family was happy, with eight children. The father was measured and just with them, and the children loved him. He never regretted fulfilling his mother's vow, though the persecution made the times harder. He changed several parishes, and the last was in the village of Arapovo, in the Bogorodsk district.

His fame as a teacher protected him for a time, but at the end of the 1930s arrest hung over him. Some representatives of the authorities tried to persuade him to leave the church and return to teaching, promising him the post of school director. His wife begged him with tears, reminding him of the children. The pastor remained steadfast: "The Lord will not leave us, He will bring all the children out among people."

On 11 September 1938, in the words of the page on the day of Saint John the Faster, he was arrested. When the chekists arrived the service was in progress, and they did not dare to interrupt it but waited outside, near the church. Father John was put in the prison of Nizhny Novgorod. His end, with that of many other priests of the diocese arrested in 1937 and 1938, was this: they were all taken to the middle of the Volga, opposite the town of Bor, near Nizhny, and the bound priests were pushed into the water one by one, while the guard watched that none should swim out; whoever came to the surface was drowned. So all were put to death.

The Church commemorates him on 4 October, in the new style, and on the movable days of the synaxis of the new martyrs and of the Saints of Nizhny Novgorod.