Paul Svetozarov

Holy Hieromartyr Paul Svetozarov was archpriest in Shuya and Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk, one of the chief defendants in the Shuya case, born on 21 May (2 June) 1867 in the village of Kartmazovo, in the Vladimir province, and shot on 10 May 1922 at Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia in August 2000, at the Jubilee Council of Bishops. Our source gives his commemoration on 27 April, in the synaxis of the saints of Ivanovo and in the synaxis of the new martyrs, while our calendar gives 14 June.

Youth and priesthood

He was born in the family of a deacon, who served at the church of Kartmazovo. From childhood he wished to be a priest. In 1881 he graduated from the theological school at Murom, in 1887 from the theological seminary at Vladimir, in 1891 from the Moscow Theological Academy, with the title of candidate in theology, and entered as psalm-⁠reader at the church of Kartmazovo. He had in mind to become a monk, but the rector of the Shuya cathedral persuaded him to marry his daughter and accept the parish. On 24 June 1892 he married, and on 2 August of the same year was ordained priest at the Resurrection cathedral of Shuya. Soon his wife died, leaving him with small children.

From 1897 he was a member of the district censorship committee for the examination of sermons. He was raised to archpriest and appointed censor of the sermons delivered in the Resurrection cathedral of Shuya, dean and chairman of the Shuya section of the Vladimir diocesan school council. He was the representative of the clergy at the zemstvo assemblies (1907 to 1917) and at the sessions of the Shuya city duma (1908 to 1917). Until the upheaval of 1917 he taught the Law of God at the Shuya gymnasium, and when teaching was stopped, he moved the lessons to the cathedral.

Arrests and trial

He was first arrested in 1919, on the charge of not obeying the orders of the Council of People's Commissars. In 1921 he was arrested and held several months in prison on orders of the Cheka, as politically unreliable, in connection with the Kronstadt uprising. Several times he was arrested for sermons. To watch him, the authorities placed an informer in his house. In March 1922 popular unrest and clashes with the militia took place at Shuya, caused by the seizure of church valuables. Right after this an investigation began against him and other servants of the Church, which lasted three weeks; on 11 April 1922 all the arrested received the indictments. On 25 April the sentence was read, in which, among other names and charges, it was said: "Pavel Mikhailovich Svetozarov to be sentenced to the supreme penalty, shooting".

On 26 April worried parishioners of Palekh sent to the Supreme Tribunal a telegram asking that the sentence not be carried out until the decision of the Central Executive Committee. The same day the Central Executive Committee asked for a copy of the sentence and the investigator's conclusion. After examining the case, the Presidium of the Committee decided to pardon those condemned to death. Mikhail Kalinin asked the Politburo for permission to pardon. On 2 May Stalin ordered the members of the Politburo to be polled about the proposal of pardon. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Molotov voted for shooting. On 4 May, at the session of the Politburo, the death sentence was officially confirmed. The next day the Presidium of the Committee, following the Politburo's directive, confirmed the sentences of shooting.

The sentence was hurried to execution. On 10 May, at two o'clock in the night, Archpriest Paul Svetozarov, Priest John Rozhdestvensky and the layman Pyotr Yazykov were shot on the outskirts of Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk, near the Dmitrievskaya prison, where they had spent their last days. According to some data, those shot were buried at the place of execution, according to others on a wasteland behind the first city hospital.