Methodius Ivanov

Holy Hieromartyr Methodius (Nikolai Mikhailovich Ivanov, in the world) was a hieromonk, born on 23 February 1899 in Simbirsk and shot on 9 September 1937 at the Butovo firing range. The Russian Church numbered him among the saints as a holy hieromartyr, for veneration throughout the Church, in 2000. He is commemorated in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on the day of his martyric death, on 27 August by the old calendar (9 September by the new).

He was born into a priest's family. He finished the parish school at Simbirsk, then the theological school at Alatyr. He entered the Simbirsk seminary, but because of the October revolution did not manage to finish it, studying further in a Soviet school. From 1920 he worked as a teacher, first at Saransk, then at Penza, in an art and technical school. In 1921 he moved to Moscow and studied two years at VKhUTEMAS. In 1923 he entered as a novice the Protection monastery in Moscow, where he was tonsured with the name Methodius and ordained hierodeacon. Here he first met Archbishop Gurias (Stepanov). In 1925 he was ordained hieromonk. In 1929, because of the closing of the monastery, he moved to the church of the Jerusalem icon of the Mother of God beyond the Pokrovskaya gate.

In the same year, on 28 December, he was arrested, accused of anti-⁠Soviet agitation (article 58-10) and sent into exile for three years in the Pinega district of the Arkhangelsk region. On returning from exile, in 1933, he settled at Kashira, from where he soon moved to the nearby village of Sukovo, where he served at the church of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God (with the side chapel of Venerable Andrew of Crete). Around Father Methodius a small monastic community gathered, mostly of exiles, living by the monastic rule. With the chairman of the village soviet he had good relations. In 1936 he was raised to the rank of hegumen.

On 28 July 1937 he was arrested, in connection with the appearance of NKVD Order no. 00447. On 10 August the witnesses from Kashira were questioned, namely the landlady of the house and the deacon. On 31 August, at the last interrogation, the investigators brought the charge of counter-⁠revolutionary activity against Father Methodius, which he rejected. On 8 September 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. The sentence was carried out on 9 September 1937 at the Butovo range, and his ashes were buried in an unknown common grave. He was rehabilitated by the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia on 29 April 1994. His life was composed by Archimandrite Damascene (Orlovsky).