John Rozhdestvensky

Holy Hieromartyr John Rozhdestvensky, a priest of Palekh, was born on 16 March 1872 in the village of Narmochi, Melenki district, Vladimir province, in the family of the priest of the church of the Forerunner, Stephen Nikanorovich Rozhdestvensky, and his wife Lyubov Andreevna. He was shot on 10 May 1922, together with Protopresbyter Paul Svetozarov and the layman Peter Yazykov, because he had read to the faithful the message of Patriarch Tikhon on the seizure of church valuables.

Priest at Palekh

He studied at the theological school in Vladimir and in 1892 graduated from the Vladimir Seminary. He was catechist and teacher at the parish school in Slavtsevo, then between 1893 and 1897 at zemstvo schools in Ivachevo and Nevero-⁠Sloboda. He married Alexandra, daughter of Protopresbyter Basil Malinin of the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the village of Palekh, and on 17 October 1897 was ordained priest for that church. Understanding how important the enlightenment of the people was in the troubled century that was beginning, he showed from the start zeal as a pastor. From 23 October 1903 he directed the free library-⁠reading room opened through his efforts. Between 1905 and 1911 he was candidate delegate to the district and diocesan congresses, and from 1908 catechist at the two-⁠class ministry school and the girls' school at Palekh, founded through his care. With his wife he had no children, and he gave all his strength and time to his parishioners and the church. Twenty-⁠five years he served at the church in Palekh, and the parishioners loved him as a father. Through his labour there were opened in Palekh the consumer society, the library and the credit society, and the second-⁠degree school owes its opening most of all to him.

The time of the seizure of valuables

On 2 January 1922 Soviet power issued the decree on the seizure of museum property. The famine after the civil war allowed the Bolsheviks to continue the war and to plunder churches and kill servants. Patriarch Tikhon, already in August 1921, had asked for help for the hungry. In February 1922 he wrote to the faithful, allowing the use for the hungry of the valuables which were not consecrated and had no use at the service, but on 26 February the authorities issued the decree on the seizure of all precious objects of gold, silver and stones, including consecrated ones, destroying the character of a gift of free will. The Patriarch showed in another message that he could not approve the taking of consecrated objects, which the canons regard as sacrilege. In March, Trotsky headed the secret commission which took control of the action. Among the first victims of the campaign were the priests and laymen of the town of Shuya and of the village of Palekh.

At Shuya, on 15 March 1922, before the Resurrection cathedral, the crowd was dispersed with shots, with whips and with horses, and those killed were laid on the porch. That day the seizure of valuables was not carried out. Mass arrests followed. Four priests were charged with resistance: Paul Svetozarov, John Rozhdestvensky, John Lavrov and Alexander Smelchakov, the cathedral's warden Alexander Paramonov and twenty laymen; after the investigation, nineteen were sent to trial.

On 19 March, a Sunday, Father John read from the ambo the message of Patriarch Tikhon on the seizure of church valuables, as was his duty. After that, the GPU of Shuya received a denunciation that the priest had "read Tikhon's message as a sermon". On 24 March a search was made of his home and the message was taken, and the next day he was arrested and charged with reading it. The witnesses, parishioners and icon painters present at the service, said with one voice that the father urged them not to resist the seizure. On 2 April the parishioners of the church of the Exaltation of the Cross asked for his release, writing that in twenty-⁠five years he had never touched political themes and that at the last service he had called for calm. The investigators pressed him to say from where he had received the message; he answered that it came by post, but he no longer remembered from where, what stamp the envelope had and where the envelope was. On 17 April the parishioners sent a petition to the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal, and the next day the villagers gathered and wrote another, recalling the consumer society, the library, the credit society and the second-⁠degree school, owed to the father.

At the trial Father John did not admit guilt; he confirmed only that he had read the message of Patriarch Tikhon and said a word to calm the passions. In his last word he said again that he did not know from where he had received the message and that he had not called to resistance. On 25 April, at a quarter past six in the evening, the sentence was read: Protopresbyter Paul Svetozarov, the priest John Rozhdestvensky and the layman Peter Yazykov were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on 10 May 1922, at two o'clock in the night.

The Church commemorates him on 10 May, the day of his death, in the new style, on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ivanovo, and on the movable day of the synaxis of the new martyrs.