Jonah Smirnov

Holy Venerable Martyr Jonah Smirnov was a hieromonk of the Peshnosha monastery in Tver province, then a village priest, and was shot on 5 January 1938 in Kashin. The Church has glorified him among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.

Born Ivan Afanasievich Smirnov, he was born on 15 March 1870 in the village of Leonovo, in the Korcheva district of Tver province, into a peasant family. He was orphaned at fifteen and worked as a shoemaker. In 1890 he entered the Peshnosha monastery of Saint Methodius, dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. On 25 February 1900 he was counted among the brethren, and on 8 August 1908 he was tonsured a monk with the name Jonah. He was ordained hierodeacon on 3 August 1910 and hieromonk on 22 July 1914, and later held the office of dean. In 1918 he returned to his native village, and afterwards served as a priest in the village of Bolshoye Mikhailovskoye, in the Kalyazin district.

On 4 January 1930, on the strength of denunciations by Renovationists, he was arrested and imprisoned in Kashin, accused of having taken part in 1918 in an anti-⁠Bolshevik uprising at Rogachevo. He firmly rejected all the charges. On 3 February 1930 the OGPU Collegium sentenced him to five years in a labour camp. He served his sentence at Ust-⁠Sysolsk, renamed Syktyvkar in 1930, and then in the Ukhta-⁠Pechora camp. On 23 September 1932 he was released, and in September 1933 he returned to Bolshoye Mikhailovskoye and went on serving in the church.

On 24 December 1937 he was arrested again, on a charge of anti-⁠Soviet activity, and imprisoned in Kashin. He did not admit guilt. On 30 December 1937 a special NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. The sentence was carried out on 5 January 1938, and his body was buried in an unknown common grave.

He was glorified by the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. He is commemorated on 5 January, on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 18 July (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver, all in new style.