Michael Gorbunov

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Gorbunov, a priest, was born on 2 September 1878 in the village of Seliverstovo, Poshekhonye district of Yaroslavl province, to the peasant Pyotr Gorbunov. He served as reader, then as deacon, at the church in the village of Rakobol. In 1923 he was ordained a priest for the church of the Saviour in the Poshekhonye district. By 1935 almost all the churches in the district had been closed by the authorities, and Father Michael settled with his brother in Seliverstovo. He earned his bread going round the villages and repairing clocks and household objects.

On 12 October 1937 he was arrested on a charge of counter-⁠revolutionary activity, of going round the villages for anti-⁠Soviet agitation and of taking part in an insurgent organization, and was questioned the same day. Asked whether he was a member of an insurgent group, he said that he was not and knew nothing of any organization. He admitted that he spoke with the collective farmers, but denied that he had agitated for rebellion. When the testimony of a witness was read to him, he said that the witness was lying. On 15 October the NKVD troika sentenced him to eight years in a labour camp. On 23 October 1937 he arrived with the Yaroslavl transport at Kuloilag.

He did not remain long in captivity. The priest Michael Gorbunov died on 7 March 1938 in the Kuloi labour camp in the Arkhangelsk region and was buried in an unknown grave. He is commemorated on 7 March, 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 5 June with the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, and on 1 November with the Synaxis of the Saints of the Arkhangelsk Metropolis.