Paul Dobromyslov of Ryazan

Holy Hieromartyr Paul Dobromyslov of Ryazan, an archpriest, was born on 17 June 1877 in the village of Polyany in the Ryazan district, in the family of the priest Nikolai Grigorievich Dobromyslov. He studied at the spiritual school and the seminary of Ryazan, then at the Moscow Theological Academy (1897-1901). He married Claudia Alekseevna Shuvalova and they had six children.

Service in Ryazan

On 1 October 1901 Bishop Polyeuct of Ryazan ordained him priest for the church of Saint Nicholas at Staryi Yam in Ryazan. Between 1902 and 1912 he taught at the diocesan girls' school and at gymnasia, was on the missionary committee of the diocese and in 1913 received a pectoral cross. In 1914 he was appointed priest of the church of the Sorrowful Mother of God at the Muromtseva almshouse, and in 1918, in the first persecution, he was arrested and held for a time as a hostage in a Moscow prison, being a clergyman of great authority. In 1923 he was assigned to the Annunciation church in Ryazan and raised to archpriest. In March 1924 Archbishop Boris Sokolov appointed him dean of the Ryazan district. Against the Renovationists he wrote, at the archbishop's request, the history of the Renovationist movement in the diocese, and wrote letters to his archbishop showing their methods.

Arrests

The diocesan chancery of Archbishop Boris, with its circulars, was regarded by the authorities as an illegal religious journal. The archbishop, the vicar Gleb and a group of priests were arrested in October 1925. Father Paul was arrested on 27 October 1925. At the interrogations he said that the chancery had a permitted stamp and seal, that the circulars had no political character and that he, as dean, was only an executor. On 13 November he wrote to the authorities that he could not admit guilt. On 26 March 1926 the Special Board sentenced him to three years in a camp, and the same year he was sent to Solovki.

After release he served in churches of the diocese. In 1930 he was arrested again, accused of keeping small change, and received three years of exile in Semipalatinsk, in Kazakhstan. In 1933 he returned to Ryazan, to the Annunciation church, but in 1935 part of the clergy of that church went over to the Renovationists, and he was forced to leave and was appointed rector of the church of the Kazan Icon in the village of Solotcha. On 16 March 1938 the NKVD summoned as a false witness the deacon who served with him; he said that the priest often preached about preparing for the Mysteries, called for repentance, for giving up class struggle and for forgiveness. On 26 March 1938 Father Paul was arrested and held in Ryazan. The interrogations lasted a month and a half; he rejected all the charges and said he had belonged to no counter-⁠revolutionary organization.

On 29 May 1938 the Special Board of the NKVD sentenced him to eight years in a camp. He was sent to a camp in Karaganda, arriving on 16 July 1938. Archpriest Paul Dobromyslov died on 2 February 1940 in the 8th Chur-⁠Nura section of the camp and was buried in an unknown grave.

He is commemorated on 2 February, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 23 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan, on 23 August in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Solovki and on 10 December in the Synaxis of Radonezh, in the new style.