Michael Popov

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Popov, a priest, was born on 22 February 1878 in the village of Podlesnaya Sloboda, Lukhovitsy district of Ryazan province, to the priest Michael Popov. He lived there until the age of six, when his father was moved to the church of the village of Garyatovo, in the same district. Michael finished the village school and entered the Zaraysk clerical school, then the Ryazan seminary. Graduating in 1894, he was sent as teacher of religion to the parish school at Kutukovo, Zaraysk district. In 1896 he was moved as religion teacher to the zemstvo school of Vakino. In 1902 he was ordained a priest for the Entry church in the village of Zhilkontsy, Zaraysk district. In January 1917 he passed to the church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Nizhnee Maslovo, Lukhovitsy district. He was widowed early, with two children in his care, and a sister helped him in the household.

In July 1937, at a meeting of the collective-⁠farm board, the plenary of the village council and the Komsomol organization, it was resolved to close the church at Nizhnee Maslovo, and to approve the decision a village meeting was called. The priest explained to the faithful that the local authorities could not close the church without their consent and asked them all to come to the meeting. When the meeting was opened, which all the faithful attended, the majority spoke against the closing and the church could not be closed.

In February 1938 NKVD officers questioned the chairman of the village council and some witnesses. The chairman said that he had summoned the priest to the council to give him the self-⁠taxation document with the sum of his tax. The sum seemed to the priest so high that in his astonishment he said, "I do not recognize your law, I am an old man and I will not pay, I do not understand this law, for by the constitution all are equal, the collective farmers pay twenty roubles each, why have you written me down to pay one hundred and fifty, so the constitution is not a law but paper, and there is no truth in it."

On 17 February 1938 Father Michael was arrested and questioned at once. The investigator told him that he was accused of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation against the existing order, of disobedience to Soviet laws and of terrorist intentions toward the leaders of the Party, the government and members of the Party. The priest answered that he had carried on no counter-⁠revolutionary agitation, had never withdrawn from Soviet laws and had never expressed terrorist intentions, and that he did not admit guilt. The interrogations ended, and he was placed under guard in the prison at Kolomna. On 21 February 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death; for the execution he was moved to the Taganka prison in Moscow. The priest Michael Popov was shot on 26 February 1938 and buried in the unknown common grave at the Butovo range near Moscow.

He is commemorated on 26 February, the day of his death, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo (a movable day) and with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, on 5 September (a movable day).