Michael Plyshevsky

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Plyshevsky, an archpriest, was born on 1 November 1862 in the village of Voronichi, Igumen district of Minsk province, to a hereditary family of Church servants. After the clerical school and the seminary at Minsk he was ordained a priest in 1890. In 1893 he was appointed rector of the Protection church in the village of Pogorelae, Igumen district (now the Osipovichi district of the Mogilev region), where he served nineteen years and laboured much for the salvation of souls. His uplifting sermons and his spiritual life won the love and respect of all. In 1912 he was moved to the village of Shatsk (now the Pukhovichi district) and appointed rector of the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah. On 25 June 1914 the clergy of the second Igumen district elected him for three years a deputy to the diocesan congress.

After the Bolsheviks came to power he was arrested several times on false charges. In 1929-1930 he spent a year and a half in prison, in 1932 he was three months under inquiry and in 1933 he was arrested for three weeks. Despite his age and bodily infirmities, he remained faithful to his calling and made no bargain with his conscience. Soon the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah was closed, and Father Michael was occupied with services on request. He gathered signatures from the faithful for the opening of the church. At the general census of 1937 he urged the inhabitants of Shatsk not to fear Soviet power and to register as believers.

He was arrested for the last time on 17 July 1937, on a charge of anti-⁠Soviet and counter-⁠revolutionary activity, and was held under inquiry in the NKVD prison at Cherven. Enduring torments with firmness, he not only did not renounce his rank, but boldly rebuked the godless. On 12 August 1937, together with John Vorontz and the warden of the church of Saint Elijah, Alexander Shpakovsky, he was sentenced by the NKVD troika to the highest penalty. He was shot on 19 August 1937, on the feast of the Transfiguration. On 21 March 1989 he was rehabilitated by the procurator's office of the Byelorussian SSR. On 28 October 1999 the Holy Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church canonized him as a locally venerated saint, and in August 2000, at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He is commemorated on 20 August, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (a movable day) and, on 11 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Belarus (a movable day).