Michael Zelentsovsky

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Zelentsovsky, a priest (Mikhail Viktorovich Zelentsovsky), was born in 1878 in the village of Yakovlevo-⁠Massalskoe, Uglich district of Yaroslavl province, to a titular councillor's family. He studied at the Pokrovo-⁠Paisievsk parish school, which he finished in 1900. From 1901 his life was devoted to the Church: preparing for holy orders, he served as reader, first at the monastery of Saint Athanasius in Yaroslavl, then at the church of Saint Basil the Great in Uglich. On 17 October 1909 the future Archbishop Tikhon (Bellavin) ordained him a deacon. For a few months he served at the church of Saint Basil, then he was moved to the Resurrection cemetery church, where he served until 1921.

Father Michael's beautiful voice, his love and zeal for church services drew the attention of Archbishop Seraphim (Samoylovich) of Uglich, who blessed him to perform at his side the duties of protodeacon. For seven years they served together. Father Michael found himself, willingly or not, at the centre of the events of the confession of faith of the Russian Orthodox Church and of resistance to the Renovationist disorder, in the conditions of persecution by the godless power. In 1928 Archbishop Seraphim was exiled. In May 1930 the parishioners of the church of Saint Nicholas-⁠on-⁠the-⁠Sands in Uglich asked him to accept the priesthood and serve in their church. In June 1930, in the church of the Resurrection on the Blood in Leningrad, Bishop Sergius of Narva ordained him a priest. At the ordination Bishop Sergius asked who was his diocesan bishop, and Father Michael named Archbishop Seraphim, in exile, who had already been five times in prison. Bishop Sergius told him that he had "outdone" Archbishop Seraphim, since he had been in prison eleven times. In accepting the priesthood Father Michael knew that the same way of the cross lay before him too.

The newly ordained priest served at the church of Saint Nicholas-⁠on-⁠the-⁠Sands for only half a year. On 22 February 1931 he was arrested. At the arrest the letters from exile of Archbishop Seraphim, photographs of them together, the certificate of ordination and other documents were taken from him. Almost at the same time thirty-⁠four other persons were arrested, all accused of belonging to the True Orthodox Church and found guilty of anti-⁠Soviet activity. The OGPU Collegium sentenced Father Michael to ten years in a labour camp.

From 1931 to 1937 the priest was in Karelia, at the camp point Vonga (Belbaltlag). In the camp he went on fulfilling his priestly duty: he spoke to the prisoners about the need of faith and of the Church in the life of man, explained the meaning of church rites, and prayed with those who wished. Knowing that he had been convicted without cause, he refused altogether to take part in the forced labour of the prisoners. In the report given by the head of the camp point it is said: "He does not work from religious conviction. In daily life he behaves negatively, does not submit to the camp administration, agitates against production and against Soviet power, unsocial." In 1937 a second case was opened against Father Michael. He was accused of active counter-⁠revolutionary activity among the prisoners and "repressed in the first category", which meant the highest penalty. He was not questioned, but accused on the basis of witnesses' testimony. On 9 December 1937 the priest Michael Zelentsovsky was shot. To the matushka's inquiry about her husband's fate, the answer came that he had been sent to a distant camp.

On 6 September 1968 he was rehabilitated, with regard to 1931. On 12 March 2002, by decision of the Holy Synod, he was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. He is commemorated on 9 December, the day of his death, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (a movable day), on 3 June with the Synaxis of the Saints of Karelia, on 5 June with the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, and on 1 November with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Karelian Land (a movable day).