Paul Preobrazhensky

Holy Hieromartyr Paul Preobrazhensky, an archpriest, was born on 10 December 1882 at Kolomna, in the family of the priest Platon Pavlovich Preobrazhensky. In 1905 he finished the Moscow Theological Seminary, in 1907 he married Anastasia, the daughter of Archpriest John Mitropolsky, and in 1908 he was ordained deacon for the Nativity Monastery in Moscow. In 1917 he was ordained priest for the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Mishutino. The parish was very poor, so the priest worked the land in summer and in winter did carting: together with the peasants he cut wood in a grove and took it to Sergiev Posad. Three kilometres away served the priest John Inyushin, and the families were friends and met on feasts; at Christmas they had a tree, which the children decorated with home-⁠made toys.

At the end of 1928 he was appointed rector of the church of Saint Elijah in the village of Sinkovo. On leaving he sold his house, but did not receive the money, because the buyer said that priests were not entitled to money, so he lived in rented rooms, in a single room. In the mid-⁠thirties he was raised to archpriest. He was simple and kind to all, and the parishioners loved him and came to him often: some with questions, some for a book, some needing spiritual support. They said: A gentle soul. In mid-⁠June 1937 he was visited by a woman who had gone into the service of Soviet power and did not hide it, Raisa Uklonskaya. Father Paul received her and said: It was in vain that you left the Church; your new platform is not firm, do not trust it.

He was arrested on 30 September 1937. He was held a few days at the militia in Rogachevo, then sent to Dmitrov on foot, twenty-⁠four versts, with no transport. When he was led through Sinkovo, the neighbours called his wife, Anastasia, who ran out and saw him for the last time; he could barely move his feet. He arrived at the prison sick. There were no grounds for the arrest, but he was found guilty of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation aimed at undermining the power of the Soviet state. On 19 October 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was shot on 21 October 1937 and buried in the common grave at Butovo.

He is commemorated on 21 October, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow and on 10 December in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Radonezh, in the new style.