John Mirotvortsev

Holy Hieromartyr John Mirotvortsev, a priest, was born on 25 March 1881 in the village of Elshanka in the Saratov district, in the family of the peasant Nikolai Mirotvortsev. After the Saratov Theological Seminary he was ordained priest for the church in the village of Vyazmino and served there nine years, in the time of the spiritual flourishing of the diocese, when it was shepherded by the zealous Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganev). Later he was moved to the church in the village of Tavolozhka and gained there so much authority among the parishioners that for any worry they turned first to him. When elsewhere the authorities took the land of priests in the indifference of the parishioners, here the Bolsheviks did not succeed, since rich and poor peasants rose together against the decision.

In 1928 Soviet power resumed the pitiless struggle against the peasantry and the Church. Peasants with any means had all their property taken. Peasants who were wardens, choir directors, singers, together with their pastors, were arrested and exiled. In 1928 Father John, as a "malicious non-⁠deliverer of grain", was sentenced to a month in prison. In May 1928, at the assembly of peasants, a representative of the authorities called the peasants to hand in more grain voluntarily, and all answered with silence. It was then discussed whether to give land to the priest. Father John told the peasants that he was deprived of land on the basis of false certificates, "without the knowledge of you, the elders". The assembly decided by majority to give the priest land. The next day, according to the members of the village council, the father and his wife came to the council, where the priest was said to have said that in the council there sit not rulers but swindlers and hooligans. For this an act was drawn up and sent to the prosecutor.

In March 1929, for non-⁠delivery of surplus grain, almost all his property was taken, and a month later the representatives of authority came again to take what was left. The priest was not in the village, but before the house a great crowd of the faithful gathered, many shouting in the faces of those who came: "Robbers, bloodsuckers." Through the people's defence the authorities withdrew that time. On 19 October 1929 a local Communist demanded that the priest hand over to the state three hundred poods of grain, and Father John answered: "You are laying a levy on me again, did mine grow more than anyone's? Tell me to my face that you do not want me, father." On 9 November 1929 Father John and three peasants were arrested and imprisoned at Atkarsk. Interrogated, he said that he remembered well the conflict of May 1928 with the chairman of the council and that he had deprived him of the field under the pretext of hiring labourers, and that he had appealed to the assembly, but had spoken no abusive words. He denied that he had resisted the taking of his property in March and April 1929 and that he had organized demonstrations.

On 15 December 1929 the investigation was closed; the priest and the peasants were accused that, "united for anti-⁠Soviet activity and under the guise of religiosity, they often met in the house of the priest Mirotvortsev". OGPU officers proposed not to hold a trial but to decide in the Special Council, with which the prosecutor disagreed, considering that the case, being fully proved, should be judged in court. The OGPU plenipotentiary answered that a public trial would not have the effect, since the priest Mirotvortsev has authority and religious influence among all strata of the village, especially among the poor. On 24-25 January 1930 the OGPU troika sentenced him to five years' imprisonment and he was sent to a camp for the construction of the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal. After serving it he was forbidden to live in the Lower Volga Region, that is, the Saratov region, where he had served more than a quarter of a century and where all his flock remained.

Returned from the camp, he served in the village of Priimkovo, Gavrilov-⁠Yam district, Yaroslavl region, but not for long. In July and August 1937 in the Gavrilov-⁠Yam district a group of clergy and laity was arrested, headed by the dean. Some of them agreed to be false witnesses and said that Father John, on his appointment to the parish, had received from Metropolitan Paul (Borisovsky) of Yaroslavl "tasks of an anti-⁠Soviet character". He was arrested on 6 August 1937 and imprisoned at Yaroslavl. After a week the investigator interrogated him; he denied belonging to an insurgent church group, holding anti-⁠Soviet gatherings in his dwelling or doing counterrevolutionary work. On 16 August the investigation was closed, and on 28 September the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a camp. The priest John Mirotvortsev died in Ukhtpechlag on 18 March 1938 and was buried in an unknown grave.

The Church commemorates him on 18 March, the day of his death, in the new style, on 11 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Komi, on 5 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, and on the movable days of the synaxis of the new martyrs and of the Saints of Saratov.