John Speransky

Holy Hieromartyr John Speransky, a protopresbyter, was born on 1 January 1864 in the village of Zhelovizh in the Kaluga district of the Kaluga province, in the family of the priest John Speransky. After the Kaluga Theological Seminary he was ordained priest and served in churches of the Kaluga diocese. For blameless and zealous service he was raised to the rank of protopresbyter and received the mitre. He was a member of the Union of the Russian People and received orders for self-⁠giving service to the Church and the fatherland. He enjoyed great honour among the faithful of Kaluga, so that when the godless came to power and the civil war began, he was arrested at once and imprisoned as a hostage. At the confiscation of church valuables in 1922 he was arrested again and sentenced to a year in prison. In 1937 he was arrested once more.

The investigator told him that he was arrested for counterrevolutionary activity while rector of the church of the Mother of God the Guide. He answered: "I did no counterrevolutionary activity or agitation." Asked about his relations with Archbishop Augustine (Belyaev), he said that he regarded him as the bearer of a high sacred rank. The investigators wanted to learn something about the archbishop and demanded that he confirm false testimonies, but the priest refused categorically. At one of the last interrogations he was told that the investigation had established that he was a member of a counterrevolutionary monarchist organization. He answered: "No, I do not admit it. I was not a member of a counterrevolutionary organization and I do not know that it exists." Extracts were read to him from the testimonies of other accused, who had admitted to being members of the organization, and he repeated that he was not guilty, adding that if he were confronted with them, he would deny it then too.

On 19 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced to death Archbishop Augustine (Belyaev), Archimandrite Joannicius (Dmitriev), Protopresbyter John Speransky, the psalmists Alexis Gorbachev and Apollon Babichev and the church council member Michael Arefiev. They were shot on 23 November 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave.

The Church commemorates him on 23 November, the day of his death, in the new style, on 31 July in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kaluga, and on the movable day of the synaxis of the new martyrs.