John Vasilyev

Holy Hieromartyr John Vasilyev, a priest, was born in 1886 in the village of Chernaya Gryaz in the Ostashkov district of the Tver province, in the family of the peasant Jacob Vasilyev. He studied at the theological school in Ostashkov. In 1915 he was mobilized and until 1917 served as a soldier. Between 1917 and 1928 he worked in an agricultural artel in the North Caucasus. A deeply believing man, he often went to church, sang in the choir and in the end took the decision to devote his life to the service of the Holy Church. In 1928 he entered as psalmist a church of the Vladimir diocese and devoted all his free time to study; the rector of the church wished to prepare him for holy orders.

In March 1929 he was ordained deacon, and on 12 July of the same year priest for the church in the village of Rogozino, Vladimir region. From 1930 he served in churches of the Moscow region: in the village of Prokhorovo, Podolsk district, in Yurkino, Istra district, in Chaplygino, Voskresensk district, and at the church of Saint George in Peredelets, Krasnaya Pakhra district. In 1936 he received the pectoral cross.

In February 1937 the treasurer of the church of Saint George died and the wife of Father John had to become treasurer. The authorities warned them that they had no right to touch the church chest, but no one in the village accepted the post, and the authorities told the priest that, if the parish had no treasurer, they did not allow him to serve. On 6 September 1937 the priest sent the bishop a request: since at Saint George's he was forbidden to serve, he asked to be given another parish. The bishop sent him to a church in the Vinogradovo district. He served here a little over a month, for everywhere there was merciless persecution. On 26 November 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Kolomna.

The investigator asked him about his service as a pastor and, convinced that the choice to serve the Church had been one of principle, found that this was enough for a sentence and put him only one question: whether, living in the village of Usadishchi, he had carried on counterrevolutionary activity. The father answered that he did not admit guilt. The investigator sent the file to the NKVD troika, and the priest was moved to Taganka. On 5 December 1937 the troika sentenced him to ten years in a corrective labour camp. The priest John Vasilyev died in detention on 17 May 1942 and was buried in an unknown grave.

The Church commemorates him on 17 May, 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 Moscow (5 September).