Mavriky Poletaev

Venerable Martyr Mavriky Poletaev, archimandrite, (in the world Mikhail Vladimirovich Poletaev) was born on 18 December 1880 at Kronstadt and died a martyr on 4 October 1937 in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. He was canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 20 August 2000, among the venerable martyrs. He is commemorated on 25 January (7 February), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, and on 21 September (4 October), the day of his death.

Family and priesthood

His father, Protodeacon Vladimir Mikhailovich Poletaev, served at Saint Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt in the time of Saint John of Kronstadt, and his mother, Maria Petrovna Nesvitskaya, was a niece of Father John's wife. In 1901 he finished the theological seminary in Saint Petersburg, married and was ordained. According to a tradition in his family, he chose to serve in Turkestan with the blessing of Saint John of Kronstadt, in a land where priests went only reluctantly.

In 1908 he went with his family to Turkmenistan as a priest attached to the Russian army. He was appointed rector of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God at Merv, built in the Russian baroque style by the soldiers serving there, and he shepherded the town's large garrison. After some years he was raised to the rank of archpriest for his zealous service.

Under Bolshevik persecution

After the revolution of 1917, so that his family would not suffer with him, he left his wife and children (his son Vladimir, born in 1904, and his daughters Olga, born in 1905, and Antonina, born in 1909) and made his way back to Russia on foot. He served at Pereslavl-⁠Zalessky. In 1927 he was tonsured a monk, with the name Mavriky, at the Trinity-⁠Sergius Lavra, though other sources say at the Nikitsky monastery or at Vladimir, and was raised to archimandrite.

On 8 September 1928 he was arrested and sentenced for "counter-⁠revolutionary activity" to three years of exile, which he spent at Oryol from 1928 to 1930, with a ban on living in six large cities. In 1930 he came to Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad) and became rector of the All Saints church at Kukuevo.

On 21 October 1935 he was arrested again, on the charge of leading a monarchist group of clergy. He was held in Butyrka prison in Moscow until 8 February 1936. His landlady visited him twice, and the third time the parcel was refused and she was told he had received ten years without the right of correspondence. In February 1936 he was tried in a group case. The charges said, among other things, that he and those with him had honoured the grave of the elder Alexei Solovyov, buried in the Kukuevo cemetery, spread rumours of healings at that grave and organised pilgrimages. On 9 February 1937 he was sent to the Karlag camp in Kazakhstan.

Martyrdom

On 28 September 1937 he was sentenced in the camp for holding services and preaching. At interrogation he said that he was loyal to the Soviet power in principle, though the state of things was not to his liking, and he denied the other charges, saying that he kept his prayer within himself and had not shown it outwardly. On 4 October 1937 he was shot. According to Bishop Gury (Egorov), who was in Karlag, he had been heavily tortured before the execution.

Canonization

Archimandrite Mavriky was presented for canonization by the Diocese of Alma-⁠Ata and was numbered among the venerable martyrs by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 20 August 2000.