Paulinus Staropolev

Holy Hieromartyr Paulinus Staropolev, a priest, was born in 1865 in the village of Bykovy Gory in the Spassk district of Nizhny Novgorod province, finished the seminary and served in the village of Dubskoe. He is commemorated with the priests Alexander Ilyinsky, Alexander Kurmyshsky and Nikolai Troitsky, who were arrested with him.

In the night of 20 to 21 October 1937 the priests of the Perevoz district of the Nizhny Novgorod region were arrested and charged with leading an anti-⁠Soviet group. The investigation lasted less than a month, and on 11 November all four were sentenced to the supreme penalty and shot. Alexander Ivanovich Ilyinsky had been born in 1899 in the village of Pustyn and served in Bolshie Kemary; Alexander Mikhailovich Kurmyshsky had been born in 1879 in Simbirsk, graduated from the seminary and served in the village of Tanaikovo; Nikolai Alekseevich Troitsky had been born in 1885 in the village of Lobaski in Mordovia and served in Revezen. At the interrogations the martyrs bore themselves with dignity and rejected all the charges.

Saint Paulinus is commemorated on 20 November, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on 12 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Nizhny Novgorod, in the new style.