Michael Rybin

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Rybin was a priest of the Moscow region, born in 1877 and shot in 1938 at the Butovo firing range. He was numbered among the saints, the new martyrs of Russia, by decision of the Holy Synod of 17 July 2002, for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated on 4 February, in the Synaxes of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, of the New Martyrs of Butovo and of the Saints of Moscow.

He was born on 26 October 1877 in the village of Molodi, Podolsk district, Moscow governorate, into a peasant family. He graduated from the village school. From 1919 he served as psalm-⁠reader in a church. In 1925 he was ordained priest. Father Michael served in various parishes of the Moscow diocese: at the church of the Annunciation in the village of Matveevskoe, at the church of the Dormition in the village of Kuzmenki, and his last place of service was the church of the Resurrection in his native village of Molodi, Chekhov district. For his zealous service to the Church of Christ he received the pectoral cross.

During the mass arrests of clergy and believers in 1937 and 1938 the authorities decided to arrest the priest Michael Rybin. The investigator of the Podolsk district branch of the NKVD questioned, on 19 January 1938, four witnesses, who signed the records the investigation needed. On 25 January 1938 Father Michael Rybin was arrested and imprisoned in the Serpukhov prison; on the day of arrest he was interrogated. On 2 February 1938 the NKVD troika for the Moscow region sentenced him, under Article 58-10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, to death by shooting for active counter-⁠revolutionary agitation. On 17 February 1938 he was shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow and buried in an unknown common grave.

His troparion, in the fourth tone, says that today the Moscow land rejoices, praising the holy hieromartyr, the priest Michael, who in the days of persecution fearlessly confessed Christ and strengthened many people in the Orthodox faith; the kontakion calls him a faithful servant of the divine Mysteries and a victorious martyr, who served the people zealously and, confessing the Risen Christ, suffered even to blood.