Peter Cheltsov

Venerable Confessor Peter Cheltsov was a mitred archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, born on 20 August 1888 in a village of the Ryazan province and fallen asleep on 12 September 1972. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia, as a confessor, in August 2000, at the Jubilee Council of Bishops, for veneration throughout the Church. He is remembered on 12 September, on the new calendar.

Studies and first service

He was born into the family of a psalm-⁠reader, later a priest. He graduated from the theological school at Ryazan (1904), the theological seminary at Ryazan (1910) and the Kyiv Theological Academy, with the title of candidate in theology (1915). He married Maria Ivanovna Starodubtseva and they had an adopted daughter, Maria. In 1911 and 1912 he was priest at the church of Saint George in the village of Ulyakhino, in the Kasimov district, and teacher of religion at the parish school and the reading school at Sivtsevo.

From 1915 he taught the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament at the seminary of Smolensk and was teacher of religion and inspector at the diocesan girls' school at Smolensk. From 1916 he was a member of the Smolensk scholarly archival commission and of the diocesan committee for the relief of war victims, editor of the Smolensk Diocesan Gazette, deputy chairman of the Brotherhood of Venerable Abraham of Smolensk and a delegate at the congress of the clergy and church wardens. He received the epigonation (1915), the skufia (1916), the kamilavka and the pectoral cross (1917). In 1917 he was a delegate to the All-⁠Russian congress of educators and workers of church schools and a member of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, elected as a cleric of the diocese of Smolensk, took part in the first and second sessions and was a member of the third, seventh, eighth, eleventh and thirteenth sections.

The years of persecution

From 1918 he was librarian at the university of Smolensk and in November was elected by the parishioners rector of the church of Saint Elijah in Smolensk. From 1921 he was archpriest, dean of the churches of Smolensk, professor of liturgics and homiletics at the pastoral courses and examiner of candidates for the priesthood and diaconate. In 1922, for "resistance to the confiscation of church valuables", he was imprisoned for two months. He received the cross with decorations (1923) and the mitre (1927).

In 1927, on the charge of "group anti-⁠Soviet activity and spreading counter-⁠revolutionary literature", he was imprisoned for three years in the special camp at Solovki, where, after finishing some courses, he worked as a paramedic. In 1929 he was sent into exile at Kadnikov, in the Vologda district, where he worked at home as a shoemaker. In 1933, as a "participant in a counter-⁠revolutionary group among the exiles", he was sentenced to three years in a concentration camp, which he served in the labour colony at Konosha, where he worked as a paramedic and in felling timber. From 1936 he was rector of the church of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in the village of Narma, Kurlovo district, Vladimir region. In 1941, for "non-⁠payment of the state tax", he was imprisoned for a year in the Uglich camp. In 1942 he returned to his church. From 1943 he was rector of the church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Zakolpye, Gus-⁠Khrustalny district, Vladimir region.

In 1949 he was imprisoned at Vladimir and, after half a year, for "participation in an anti-⁠Soviet group" (he did not admit guilt) was sentenced to ten years in a camp. He served the sentence in the "Mineralny" camp in the Komi Republic, where he worked as a registrar in the sanitary service and as keeper of the store for prisoners' belongings. In 1955 he was released early, as an aged invalid of the second group.

Last years

From 1956 he was rector of the church of the Great Martyr Paraskeva-⁠Friday in the village of Velikodvorye, Gus-⁠Khrustalny district. He received the gifts of foresight and healing. He was granted the right to serve the Liturgy with the Royal Doors open until the "Our Father" (1963), the order of Saint Vladimir, second class (1967), and a second cross with decorations (1968). His relics rest in the same church.

He wrote, among other things, a presentation of the contents and an outline of the theology of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, a word for the day of the glorification of Saint John of Tobolsk (1916), and articles in the Smolensk Diocesan Gazette of 1916 and 1917: Christ is Risen, From Impressions of the Council and others.