Paul Svetozarov

Holy Hieromartyr Paul Svetozarov, an archpriest, was born in 1867 in the village of Kartmazovo in Vladimir province, in the family of the deacon Mikhail Ivanovich Svetozarov. He finished the Moscow Theological Academy in 1891 and was named teacher of the Law of God at the boys' gymnasium in Shuya. He wished to become a monk, but Archpriest Eulampius Pravdin, abbot of the Resurrection cathedral in Shuya, proposed that he marry his daughter Sofia and become a priest at the cathedral. Paul agreed and, married on 24 June 1892, was ordained priest on 2 August. They had eight children; Sofia died in 1906, and he raised them alone. In 1907 he was raised to archpriest and named abbot of the cathedral, dean and chairman of the section of the diocesan school council. He was one of the best-⁠known priests of the town, above all for his sermons, and after the atheists came to power he moved the lessons of the Law of God into the cathedral.

The seizure of church valuables

The chief holy thing of the cathedral was the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God of Shuya-⁠Smolensk, painted in 1655, when plague raged. In 1922, in the famine that struck Russia, Patriarch Tikhon gathered help for the starving, but the authorities demanded the surrender of church silver, using the famine as an occasion to plunder churches. In March 1922 the Shuya commission came to the cathedral, found the people at service, demanded it be emptied and threatened to take the priest and the members of the church commission as hostages. Father Paul said he could not drive out those who prayed, asked the people to leave, but said also that he would not hand over consecrated things with his own hand, since it would be sacrilege, though he would offer no resistance when the commission took them. The crowd stayed. On 15 March, in the square, mounted militiamen drove the people off with whips, soldiers were brought, and adolescents rang the bells, their mothers encouraging them.

Trial and martyrdom

For those events Father Paul, the priest John Rozhdestvensky and the lay believers Peter Yazykov, Nikolai Malkov, Avksenty Kalashnikov, Sergei Mefodiev and the maiden Anastasia were tried. The trial took place in the theatre of Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk, from 21 to 25 April 1922, before a travelling session of the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal. Father Paul did not admit guilt. He was asked whether he had received instructions from his superiors and whether he considered the Patriarch's commands binding: I consider the messages of Patriarch Tikhon binding. It was clear to me that the valuables had to be given, but I could not hand them over with my own hand. The president suggested that confession and repentance were the best defence; he answered in his last word that standing before death he could not lie, and asked not to be sentenced to death, not for himself but for the children who would be left without a father, since their mother was no longer living.

On 25 April the sentence was read: Archpriest Paul Svetozarov, the priest John Rozhdestvensky and the layman Peter Yazykov were sentenced to death. The faithful at once sent a petition for pardon to the Executive Committee, and the Presidium decided on pardon, but the Politburo, with the votes of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Molotov, decided on execution, confirmed on 4 May. On 10 May 1922, at two in the night, the sentence was carried out. It is told that before the execution the priests performed the funeral service over themselves and remained calm. Father Paul's last prayer was for the children left orphans, and God heard it: the children lived all their lives under heavenly protection, and the youngest daughter died in her parents' house in the eighties.

He is commemorated on 10 May, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Ivanovo Metropolis and on 10 December in the Synaxis of Radonezh, in the new style.