Michael Markov

Saint Michael Markov, hieromartyr, was a priest of the Russian Church, born in 1881 and dead in 1938 in prison, at Mariinsk. He was canonized in 2004. He is commemorated on 16 June (3 June by the old calendar), the day of his death, and in the Synaxis of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.

He was born in the village of Goretovo in the Mozhaisk district, Moscow governorate. In 1909 he was ordained priest and received the place of his father, who had recently died, becoming priest of the church of the Holy Trinity in Goretovo, where he served until his arrest. In March 1933 he was arrested and, under article 58 paragraph 10, sentenced to three years in a camp, a penalty changed to three years of exile in Kazakhstan.

After serving his exile he returned to Goretovo, but the church of the Holy Trinity was by then closed. On 25 April 1937 he received an appointment and served at the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Goryachkino, Mozhaisk district. On 29 November 1937 he was arrested on the usual charge of the time, counter-⁠revolutionary activity.

On 7 December 1937 he was sentenced by the troika attached to the NKVD Directorate for the Moscow region to ten years of labor camps, on the charge of counter-⁠revolutionary activity and anti-⁠Soviet agitation. He ended his life in prison on 16 June 1938, in the city of Mariinsk in the Kemerovo region, and was buried in an unknown grave.

Michael of Goretovo was canonized by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of 18 August 2004, on the proposal of the Moscow diocese.