Paul Aglomazovsky

Holy Martyr Paul Aglomazovsky was a peasant of the village of Aglomazovo, in Ryazan region, and was shot, together with the priest Nicholas Probatov and eleven other people, by a punitive detachment during the persecution after the revolution. The Azbyka page mostly tells the life of the priest. Of Paul it says only that he was among those killed, two of whom were named Paul.

Nicholas Probatov was born in 1874 at Ignatievo near Kadom, the younger son of a priest. He studied at the spiritual school of Kasimov and the seminary of Tambov, in great poverty, married Varvara Algebraistova, a priest's daughter, and they made a pilgrimage to Sarov. Ordained a priest in 1899, from 1906 he served in the village of Aglomazovo, where he renewed the iconostasis, built a good choir and raised a school with room for two hundred children. He preached with gift and took no fee for services. In the war he went as a regimental priest, though he had three children. On returning in 1917 he said that priests were no longer needed, but were rather inhabitants of Heaven.

After the revolution, with a single speech he stopped a group of soldiers who wanted to take the church books. In February 1918 the peasants who would not enlist in the Red Guard set out for the district town to drive out the Bolsheviks and asked for a moleben; the priest blessed them to struggle against the persecutors of the Church. Many turned back, and those who stayed were stopped by a machine gun. A punitive detachment then came to the village. Father Nicholas sent his family to the neighbouring village but stayed himself. Arrested, he was beaten on the soles of his feet; he said that he had never danced and would not before death, and answered his mockers: Christ suffered without sin, and we suffer for our sins. From the list of those arrested the commander left of the women only Agatha, the only one without support.

In the evening eighteen condemned were led to the river Tsna. Father Nicholas raised his hands and prayed: Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. After the first volley he rose, began It is truly meet to bless you, and was killed by the second. Thirteen died: the church warden Kosma Egorovich, the peasants Victor Krasnov, Nahum and Philip (father and son), John, Paul, Andrew, Paul, Basil, Alexis, John and Agatha; the others crawled away, hid among villagers and told what had happened. In the morning the peasants brought the bodies, and the priest's body had stiffened, with raised hands, blessing. Priests from neighbouring villages buried him late at night, with the windows covered so that the punishers should not see.

Saint Paul is commemorated with the other martyrs of Aglomazovo on 11 November, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on 23 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan, in the new style.