Michael Bogoroditsky

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Bogoroditsky, a priest, was born in 1872 in the village of Studenetskie Vyselki, Lipetsk district, Tambov province. He was named Mikhail Trofimovich Bogoroditsky. For thirty-⁠three years he served at the church of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" in the town of Kozlov, in the Tambov region. With his wife, Matushka Maria, he raised eleven children in the Orthodox spirit.

In 1930 he was arrested on a charge of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation and held in the city of Tambov. On 19 March 1930 the OGPU troika of the Central Black Earth region sentenced him to five years of exile. After exile he could not return to his church, since it had been taken by the Renovationists, and he was sent to serve in the village of Belomestnaya Dvoynya in the Tambov district. At the beginning of October 1937 the chairman of the village council warned him: "Bogoroditsky, go away, they are going to arrest you." He answered, "But whom shall I leave the church and the parishioners to?" After this conversation Father Michael went to Michurinsk, where his wife and thirteen-⁠year-⁠old son lived in a rented room, repaired the stove (he had learned how in the camp), mended his clothes to make them more practical, and said goodbye to his wife at the station, for ever.

On 12 November 1937 Archpriest Michael was arrested and imprisoned, and on 20 November he was sentenced by the NKVD troika of the Tambov region, on a charge of systematic counter-⁠revolutionary agitation, discrediting the leader of the Party, inciting the religious fanaticism of believers, and using the church pulpit for propaganda and for calls to the collective farmers to resist the grain levy organizedly. He was condemned to death and shot on 7 December 1937.

He is commemorated on 7 December, 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), on 10 August with the Synaxis of the Saints of the Tambov Metropolis, and on 23 September with the Synaxis of the Saints of Lipetsk.