Panteleimon Bogoyavlensky

Holy Hieromartyr Panteleimon Bogoyavlensky, a priest, was born around 1881 in Pskov province, in the family of a psalmist of the Epiphany Cathedral at Velikiye Luki, John Bogoyavlensky, and was orphaned young. He finished the Pskov Theological Seminary in 1903, with difficulty, because studies had to be paid for. The year of his birth is set approximately, from the year he finished the seminary.

He began as a psalmist at the church of Saint Nicholas in Aleksandrovsky Posad on the Talab Islands, where Father Nikolai Guryanov later served. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius. On 3 June 1907 Archbishop Arsenius of Pskov ordained him deacon for the church of the Senno graveyard, dedicated to Saint George. On 30 September 1908 he was ordained priest and assigned to the church of the Kazan Icon of the Annunciation Convent at Vorontsovo, founded in 1898 with the help of Saint John of Kronstadt. In the summer of 1911 he was moved to Verkhny Ostrov, then to the Saint Nicholas church of the invalids' home at Karachunitsy, and a month later, Bishop Alexis having noticed his gift for preaching, to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Porkhov, as second priest.

At Porkhov he preached as often as he could, exposing political and religious charlatans and defending the faith and Christian virtues. He was elected to the board of the church school at Porkhov and in 1914 received the kamilavka. In October 1917 the Bolshevik coup took place, and in the spring of 1918 Father Panteleimon was shot without trial. Nothing of his file survives. The Weekly of the VChK for May 1918 lists him among those shot: Panteleimon Bogoyavlensky, dean of the Porkhov cathedral, shot for spreading false rumours through sermons. The title is wrong: the dean was Eugene Lebedev. The priest was thirty-⁠seven and had served eleven years as a priest. The cause of his death was his preaching against the enemies of the Church.

He is commemorated on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Pskov, and on 9 August, in the new style.