John Melnichenko

Holy Hieromartyr John Melnichenko (in the world Ivan Sidorovich Melnichenko) was a priest, born on 26 September 1889 in the village of Ustye, in the Vinnytsia region, and shot on 15 September 1937 at Burma, in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. He is commemorated on 15 September, the day of his death (2 September by the old calendar), and in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land on 14 September.

He was born in the village of Ustye, Olgopol district, Podolia governorate (today the Bershad district, Vinnytsia region). From 1917 to 1922 he was a teacher in a village school. In 1922 he was ordained priest and began his ministry in one of the churches of the Vinnytsia region.

On 5 September 1935 he was arrested, accused of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation, and imprisoned in Vinnytsia. On 14 December 1935 the special college of the Vinnytsia regional court sentenced him to seven years' imprisonment. He served his term in the Burma section of the Karaganda camp. On 14 August 1937 he was taken into custody in the camp as an adherent of a counter-⁠revolutionary group of church servants headed by Bishop Damascene (Tsedrik), accused of counter-⁠revolutionary activity and of taking part in illegal gatherings and services. The occasion of the arrest was the singing of church songs, the Paschal canon, together with the holy hieromartyr Victor Basov.

From the indictment: he was acquainted with other ministers of cult, in his office he organised the singing of church songs with the minister of cult Basov and, discontented with the Soviet power, expressed anti-⁠Soviet views toward revolutionary festivals and orders. At the interrogation he stated that he admitted guilt only of having sung church hymns, and did not admit the other charges. On 10 September 1937 a special troika of the NKVD for the Karaganda region sentenced to death a group of clergy, among them Bishop Damascene (Tsedrik), Archpriest Euthymius Goryachev, priests John Smolichev, John Melnichenko, Vladimir Morinsky, Victor Basov, Vasily Zelensky, Theodotus Shatokhin, Stephen Yaroshevich, Peter Novoselsky and the nun Xenia (Cherlina-⁠Brailovskaya), for counter-⁠revolutionary agitation and the organisation of group prayers, especially on church feasts, as a group of churchmen of monarchist convictions.

He was shot on 15 September 1937 in the Burma section of Karlag and buried in an unknown common grave. He was rehabilitated on 6 April 1990. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia by the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church of 13 August 2000, from the Alma-⁠Ata diocese. On 1 April 2015, with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the celebration of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land was established, and among its 15 ascetics the holy hieromartyr John (Melnichenko) was named.