Michael of Kulebaki

Holy Hieromartyr Michael of Kulebaki (in the world Michael Ivanovich Gusev) was an archpriest of the Russian Church. He was born on 25 October 1890 in the village of Diveevo, Arzamas district, Nizhny Novgorod province, and was shot on 20 November 1937. He was canonized by the Council of Bishops of 13 to 16 August 2000, and the Holy Synod gave its decision on 6 October 2001, on the proposal of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. His commemoration is on 7 November by the old calendar (20 November by the new).

He was born into the family of Priest John Gusev of the Seraphim-⁠Diveevo Monastery. In 1913 he was ordained priest and appointed to the Seraphim-⁠Diveevo Monastery. According to the recollections of those who knew him, the father was distinguished by kindness of heart and justice, enjoyed the love and respect of parishioners and neighbours, helped as he could the sisters of the ruined Diveevo convent and did not forget the children of the arrested.

In 1927 the monastery was closed. On the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, a militiaman forbade the sisters to ring the bell for the all-⁠night vigil. Father Michael was then preparing for the service. He went out of the church to find out why the bell was not ringing, for the bell-⁠ringers of Diveevo were never late. He had scarcely run to the bell tower when he was arrested on the spot. They took him to the prison at Arzamas. Anxious for her husband's fate, Nina Ivanovna went to the village of Puzo, to the blessed Maria Ivanovna. She told her that he would serve where there are big chimneys.

He was arrested on 31 August 1937. On the eve of the arrest he had been summoned twice to the political police, where he was proposed to renounce his priestly rank, but refused. He left his wife a note in which he told her not to weep and not to murmur, for such were the times: the words of the Saviour had been fulfilled on them. He was charged with having organized in the Kulebaki district a counter-⁠revolutionary church fascist group. In the investigation he conducted himself with firmness and categorically rejected the charges. He was sentenced on 11 November 1937 under article 58, points 10 and 11, to the supreme penalty. He was shot on 20 November 1937, on the eve of his name day, the feast of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael.