Matthew Pomerantsev

Holy Martyr Matthew Pomerantsev was an archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, rector of the Perm seminary in 1917 and 1918, born on 16 May 1881 in the village of Tolmachevo, Bryansk district, Oryol governorate, and killed on 27 August 1918 in the Okhansk district, Perm governorate. He is commemorated on 27 August (14 August by the old calendar) and on the Sunday of the New Martyrs of Russia. The source calls him a venerable martyr; the record gives him as a hieromartyr.

He was born into the family of a priest. He graduated from the second theological school of Oryol (1896), the Oryol seminary (1902) and the Kiev Theological Academy with the degree of candidate of theology (1906). He taught polemical theology, the history and refutation of the Old Believers and the sects at the Oryol seminary (1906), arithmetic and geometry at the Oryol diocesan school for girls, then was assistant superintendent of the Kamyshin theological school (1908) and, at the same time, teacher of history at the three-⁠class school at Kamyshin (1909). In 1911 he received monastic tonsure at the Kiev Caves Lavra and was ordained hieromonk; in the Lavra he directed the parish church school. He taught at the Olonets seminary. In 1914 he was sent as assistant superintendent to the theological school of Ostashkov, and two years later became its superintendent. In 1917 he was appointed rector of the Perm seminary, with elevation to the rank of archimandrite, and delegate to the All-⁠Russian Congress of workers of the theological school.

He was a member of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 1917 and 1918, elected by the monastics, took part in all three sessions, sat on sections I, III, VI, XI, XIII, XVI and XVIII, on the commission on the persecution of the Orthodox Church and on the commission on measures to end disorders in church life. By commission of the Council he led the investigation of the murder of Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev (Bogoyavlensky) and made a report on it.

In August 1918, together with Archbishop Basil (Bogoyavlensky) of Chernigov and the Moscow missionary Alexei Zverev, he led in Perm the investigation of the murder of Archbishop Andronik (Nikolsky). On 27 August 1918 they were travelling from Perm to Moscow; near Perm Red soldiers burst into the train and killed all three. The bodies were thrown into the Kama; when the faithful drew them out of the water, they buried them according to Christian custom. After pilgrimages to the graves began, the bodies were dug up and burned by order of the authorities.

Archimandrite Matthew was numbered among the saints by the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981. All three were numbered among the saints, for veneration throughout the Church, by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. In 2012 he was glorified in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Kiev Theological Academy, whose celebration is on 9 November. He also left writings: a work on the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils on church order, speeches at the Congress of workers of the theological school at Kaluga (1917) and the report of the commission investigating the murder of Metropolitan Vladimir.