Michael Nekrasov

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Nekrasov, a priest, was born on 1 November 1883 in the village of Sergino, Staritsa district of Tver province, to a church servant, Alexei Nekrasov, of whom it is not known whether he was a priest, deacon or reader. Mikhail Alekseevich finished two classes of the Staritsa clerical school. On 12 February 1908 he was ordained a deacon for the church in the village of Alferyevo, Staritsa district, then a priest, and served in villages of the Tver diocese.

In 1929 the GPU began a campaign against the peasantry and the Orthodox Church. On 10 February 1930 the priest was arrested, sentenced to a labour camp and sent to the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal. On 25 October 1932 he was freed and returned to the Tver diocese. In 1934 he received a place as priest at the church in the village of Degunino, Staritsa district. He was a zealous pastor and often went about the villages of his parish.

When the new persecution of the Orthodox Church began, aiming almost at its destruction, Father Michael was arrested on 15 November 1937 and held at Rzhev. The inquiry lasted three days. There was no material of accusation against the priest, and two peasants of the same village were called, who signed the record drawn up by the investigator. Having obtained the signatures, the investigator on the third day summoned the priest and demanded that he confess to anti-⁠state activity. Each time the priest said that he did not admit guilt and had not carried on counter-⁠revolutionary agitation. Asked whether he had a close tie with the dean Sokolov, through whom he was said to receive counter-⁠revolutionary directions, he answered that he knew him well, had visited him twice recently, but had received no such directions.

The inquiry ended, and on 25 November the NKVD troika sentenced him to death, and two days later, on 27 November 1937, the priest Michael Nekrasov was shot. He is commemorated on 27 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 18 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver (a movable day).