John Pyankov

Holy Hieromartyr John Pyankov, a protopresbyter, was born in 1856 in the Perm province, in the family of a psalmist. In 1875, after finishing the Theological Seminary of Perm, he entered the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1876, at his own request, he was taken out of the academy and appointed teacher at the people's school in Dubrovo. On 24 April 1877 he was ordained priest and served at the church in the village of Grigorievskoe, Okhansk district. The same year he was moved to the church of the Mother of God of the Hodegetria in Sheryinskoe, then to the church of Saint Basil in Bolshesosnovskoe (today Bolshaya Sosnova). In 1881 he was appointed assistant to the missionary for the Okhansk district. In 1884 he was appointed assistant to the rector of the church of the Holy Trinity at the Kushva works and catechist at the Kushva children's home. In 1887 he was moved to the hospital church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Perm, being at the same time catechist at the real school in Perm. The same year he became a member of the provincial school council. In 1888 he was elected by the diocesan congress to the committee for setting up the diocesan girls' school. From 1891 he was a member of the diocesan school council. In 1893 he was appointed acting head of the council of the diocesan girls' school in Perm. In 1894 he was appointed dean of the city churches of Perm and elected to the board of the theological school. He was superintendent of the parish schools of the Verkhoturye district and head of the psalmists' school in Yekaterinburg. From 6 May 1900 he was a protopresbyter. In 1909 he was appointed chairman of the committee for building a stone church of the Nativity in Perm. From 1910 he served together with Holy Hieromartyr John Plotnikov at the church of the Meeting of the Lord at the Pyshma works. Between 1911 and 1913 he was chairman of the diocesan congresses of the clergy and of church wardens. In the last years of his service he was rector of the Resurrection church in Perm. He received the orders of Saint Vladimir, fourth class, and of Saint Anne, second and third class.

On 17 December 1918 he was seized by the Reds, together with Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Yakhontov (according to other data, with Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Saburov), and after cruel torments and mockery they were bound together and drowned in the river Kama. Saint John was tied to a prison bed and plunged several times into the icy water, then drowned in the river. He was glorified by the jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Church in the year 2000.

The Church commemorates him on 17 December, the day of his death, in the new style, and on the movable days of the synaxis of the new martyrs and of the Saints of Perm.