John Granitov

Holy Hieromartyr John Granitov was a priest of the Russian Church. He was born at Ryazhsk, in Ryazan province (according to some sources, at Verny), and was shot on 12 February 1920 or 1921 in the stanitsa of Sofiyskaya. In the year 2000 he was included in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He was born into the family of a priest. On 13 June 1897 he graduated from the Ryazan seminary in the first category, and on 12 September he was appointed teacher at the parish school of the village of Kreshchenskoye-⁠Baevo. On 30 June 1899 Bishop Arcadius (Karpinsky) of Turkestan and Tashkent assigned him to serve in the Turkestan diocese at the church of the Protection of the Mother of God in the village of Vysokoye, Chimkent district, Syr-⁠Darya region. On 6 August he was ordained deacon by Bishop Meletius (Yakimov) of Ryazan, and on 8 August priest. From 15 October 1899 he taught religion in the parish schools. In 1902 he received the epigonation. From 28 May 1903 to 17 July 1904 he was dean.

From 1906 he was rector of the church of the Protection in the village of Chaldovar. On 22 February 1908 he was appointed rector of the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Sazanovka, Przhevalsk district. From 1909 he was rector of the church of Saint Nicholas in the stanitsa of Sofiyskaya. On 6 May 1909 he received the kamilavka, in 1912 the pectoral cross from the Holy Synod, and on 2 October 1916 the Order of Saint Anne, third class.

On 11 February 1920 or 1921 he was arrested on a charge of counter-⁠revolutionary acts against Soviet power throughout its existence in Semirechye, and of concealing grain stocks, and on the same day he was condemned, under article 58-10 of the criminal code of the RSFSR, by the plenipotentiary three-⁠man tribunal of the regional committee, the revolutionary committee and the regional political police for the Verny district. He was sentenced to the supreme penalty and shot in the night of 11 to 12 February. Before the shooting he was subjected to torments and mockery. He was buried in an unknown common grave. In 1998 a worship cross was set up at the place of the execution.

In 2000, by decision of the Jubilee Council of Bishops, on the proposal of the Alma-⁠Ata diocese, he was included in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.