Michael Novitsky

Holy Confessor Michael (Mikhail Konstantinovich Novitsky) was an archpriest, born on 26 July 1889 in the village of Ozerany, Minsk province, and died on 30 April 1935 at Uzda, in the Minsk region, as a result of a beating. The Russian Church glorified him among the saints in 2000, as a holy confessor. He is commemorated on 17 April by the old calendar (30 April by the new) and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Belarus. Our calendar gives the commemoration on 25 January, which does not fit the source.

He was born into a large priest's family. In 1904 he finished the Minsk seminary and entered the faculty of history and philology of the University of Saint Petersburg. After finishing the university, from 1913 he taught Latin at the boys' gymnasium in Minsk. In the First World War he was evacuated with his family to Omsk, where he continued to teach. In 1919 he returned to Belarus and in February 1920 was ordained priest by Bishop Melchizedek (Paevsky) of Minsk and Sluck. He was appointed rector of the church of the town of Uzda, in Minsk province. Soon he was raised to the rank of archpriest and appointed dean of the Uzda district. In 1933 the church of Saints Peter and Paul, where he served, was closed. Father Michael continued to serve in a small church gatehouse.

On 26 April 1935 a robber broke into the gatehouse and demanded from Father Michael where the church valuables were kept. Not getting what he wanted, the intruder beat the priest. Because of the serious injuries he could no longer walk by himself. He served the Paschal Liturgy lying down. On 30 April 1935 Archpriest Michael Novitsky died of the beating and was buried in the parish cemetery in the town of Uzda.

He was one of the thirteen children of Archpriest Constantine Novitsky and Matushka Stefanida. In 1914 he married the daughter of the priest Nikolai Korzun, Zinaida, and they had five children. Three sons died in the Great Patriotic War. The second son, Nikolai, on 10 October 1942 covered with his body the embrasure of a bunker and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On 28 October 1999 the Belarusian Orthodox Church numbered him among the locally venerated saints. In August 2000 the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church, on the proposal of the Belarusian exarchate, numbered him among the saints, the new martyrs and confessors of Russia. His commemoration was set for 17 (30) April.