John Pokrovsky

Holy Hieromartyr John Pokrovsky, a protopresbyter, was born in 1874 in the village of Aksinino in the Kolomna district of the Moscow province, in the family of the priest Semyon Pokrovsky. He graduated from the Moscow Seminary and in 1897 was ordained priest. In 1916 he was appointed rector of the church of the Protection in the village of Chirkino. For his blameless service he was raised to the rank of protopresbyter and appointed dean of the churches of the Malino district (today Stupino).

Wishing to arrest Protopresbyter John Pokrovsky and the faithful who helped him at the church, the NKVD questioned all who, in its opinion, would sign false testimony. The teacher of the school in Chirkino said that in September 1937, near the school, the priest had said to the children: "Pray to God, then your lessons too will be understood well, do not be worshippers of Satan." He also said that the school is ten metres from the doors of the church and that the church threatens the school that it will drive it from the house which belongs to the church, and that the dome of the church has cracked and leans toward the school. A villager said that in August 1937, at the discussion of Stalin's constitution, the priest was said to have said that the constitution is only for the Bolsheviks, not for the poor class, robbed by Soviet power, and that the bells had been taken, which is a persecution of the Orthodox peasants. On the basis of these testimonies the arrest certificate was drawn up, signed by the heads of the NKVD Directorate of the Moscow region, saying that the priest carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation and became especially bold after the publication of the constitution, that in his house "wandering churchmen" from the Malino, Kolomna, Ozery and other districts came, that a contagious disease of horses and pigs had been brought into the collective farm and that three horses had been stolen from the stable, and that the priest was said to have said that this was God's punishment and that people must go to church.

On 27 January 1938 Protopresbyter John was arrested. The next day he was interrogated. He said that he could not recall conversations with words hostile to Soviet power, except the exhortation to the faithful to pray for the innocent people thrown into prison by Soviet power, and that he had told the faithful that it is no longer allowed to go round the parish, though formerly it was free, and that on one side it is written that religious services are free, but on the other side this freedom is not seen. He denied the testimony of the witnesses. He admitted that churchmen from the Malino, Kolomna and other districts often came to him. On 16 February he was interrogated again. He said that he had had visits from the wife of the priest of Bortnikovo, Orlova, on 18 January 1938, who told him that her husband, Sergei Andreevich Orlov, had been arrested by the NKVD, from the priest Famintsev of Meshcherino two or three years earlier, and from the priest Mikhail Pokrovsky of Fyodorovskoe, in the autumn of 1937. With Famintsev he had discussed that, according to the constitution, religious rites should be free, but Soviet power forbids going round the parish under the pretext of contagious diseases, which they considered wrong. Famintsev had said to him: "It has become very hard to live, Soviet power squeezes good people", and added that all hardships must be endured. He denied any anti-⁠Soviet agitation among the collective farmers and said that he was only dissatisfied that Soviet power did not allow going round the parish. After the priest had signed the protocol, the investigator wrote above the line with Famintsev's remark: "when Hitler comes".

On 21 February 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Protopresbyter John Pokrovsky was shot on 26 February 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. The Church commemorates him on 26 February, the day of his death, in the new style, and on the movable days of the synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and of the Saints of Moscow.