Peter Ignatov

Holy Martyr Peter Ignatov was born in 1904 in the village of Andreevskie Paliki in the Zhizdra district of Kaluga province, in the family of the peasant Ivan Ignatov. He finished the village school and married Anastasia of the same village, an orphan from the age of eleven, who worked by the day for her bread and was, from childhood, very religious and went often to church. At twenty-⁠two he was mobilized and sent to the OGPU troops, where he served three years as a private. While he was in the army, Anastasia moved to Kuntsevo near Moscow, as a weaver at a factory.

After demobilization Peter settled with his wife in Kuntsevo. In 1933 they went to their homeland, in the Bryansk region, but stayed there only a few months and returned to Kuntsevo, where Peter was a watchman at a warehouse. During his absence Anastasia had attached her heart to God and the Church and lived like a nun. On his return Peter was surprised at her piety; until then he had not taken faith very seriously, but now, looking at his wife's life, he thought deeply, began to go to services, to read spiritual books and to understand that the prospect of eternal life is more important than today's bustle. From then on their life was truly monastic, without bodily thoughts; they had no earthly children, but works of piety. Even Peter's appearance changed, like a monk's. They found an elderly spiritual father among the monks who had settled near the Lavra of Sergiev Posad after its closing.

The NKVD saw them and on 20 October 1937 decided on their arrest, though it had no testimony. The neighbours, the former owner of their lodging, the director and a few workers of the warehouse were interrogated. At his interrogation Peter denied belonging to the sect of the Evangelical Christians and said: I belong to the old Tikhonite Orthodox Apostolic Church. My faith consists in going often to church and praying; I know from Scripture that earthly life is passing, that there is eternal life and that offences must be forgiven to enemies. He admitted only that he had sometimes said at church that the Soviet government oppresses believers and closes churches.

On 19 November 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced Peter and his wife Anastasia to eight years in a camp. Peter Ignatov died on 14 November 1941 in the camp at Norilsk and was buried in an unknown grave. He is commemorated on 14 November, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Krasnoyarsk and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.