Michael Arefyev

Holy Martyr Michael Arefyev (Mikhail Pavlovich Arefyev) was born on 27 June 1865 in the city of Kaluga. Until 1917 he was a clerk and confidant of a Kaluga manufacturer. A deeply believing man, in 1928 he joined the parish council of the Hodegetria church in Kaluga.

In October 1937 he was arrested. At his interrogations he did not admit guilt in the charges brought against him. On 19 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death, together with Archbishop Augustine (Belyaev), Archimandrite Ioannicius (Dmitriev), Archpriest John Speransky and the readers Alexis Gorbachev and Apollon Babichev. All were shot on 23 November 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave.

Michael Arefyev is commemorated on 23 November, the day of his death, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (a movable day) and, on 31 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Kaluga.