Paul Parfenov

Holy Martyr Paul Parfenov (Pavel Nikitich Parfenov) was a merchant and the warden of the church in Mitino, in the Kasimov district. Recently a church was opened in his house in the village of Loshchinino, in the Kasimov district. Before the revolution many people of Loshchinino worked at Zaitsev's factory and, receiving a miserable wage, often took goods on credit from Parfenov. When they came to pay, he totalled their debts and, seeing that the poor man would have to give almost his whole pay, said: Well, brother, but what will you live on? He struck out the notes of debt and also gave the worker a handful of sweets for the children.

In autumn 1918 an uprising against Soviet power broke out in Kasimov. Some of the discontented passed through Loshchinino on their way to the town. Although the peasants there had not taken part in the uprising, a punitive detachment of Latvians soon arrived. The people were lined up, with the intention of shooting every tenth. The chairman of the local soviet managed to prove that the villagers had not rebelled. Then the Latvians turned on Parfenov. In vain the whole village interceded: the mounted Latvians drove the shopkeeper through the village with whips for a time and then shot him. Today in his shop, a witness of his good deeds, services are held; services are held also at the church in Mitino, where he was warden.

He is commemorated on 16 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.