Peter Lebedev

Holy Hieromartyr Peter Lebedev (Pyotr Alexandrovich Lebedev), an archpriest, was born on 5 November 1889 in the town of Galich in Kostroma province, in the family of Alexander Lebedev, a teacher at the spiritual school and later a priest at the Transfiguration cathedral of Galich. He was brought up in a strict Christian spirit, in simplicity, obedience, self-⁠restraint and humility. He finished the spiritual school in 1904 and the Kostroma seminary in 1910, then taught the Law of God at Shunga, where he met his future wife, the teacher Varvara Timofeevna. In 1910 he was ordained deacon, in 1911 priest, and was second priest at the church of the Prophet Elijah in the village of Rodniki. He was known for his freedom from the love of money and for asceticism. He told parishioners: People of my rank should not differ in wealth from other servants of God. He lived with his family in the church watchman's hut and took no money for services; the parishioners built him a house for nothing in return.

From June 1917 he was chairman of the fifth district board of Yuryevets. After the revolution he rose against the atheist power, and from 1918 he was watched until his death. In 1921 he was raised to archpriest and named abbot of the church of Saint Elijah and dean of the district. Through his efforts the parish library was made, he gathered children for lessons in the Law of God, and people came to his sermons from nearby villages too. He did not fear the atheists' threats, urged the clergy to defend the churches and took part boldly in disputes with atheists. Thanks to him, the parishioners did not accept Renovationism and went on adorning their church.

In 1932 he was arrested, and his wife and five children were thrown out of their house. In prison he worked two and a half years on a state farm near Ivanovo, subjected to mockery and insults. Freed in 1935, he returned to Rodniki. When the authorities wished to close the church, he organized a collection of signatures in its defence; over a hundred were gathered by the school director, who was dismissed and arrested. In the night of 8 October 1937 Father Peter was arrested together with the second priest of the church, Nikolai Rozonov, and taken to the prison in Ivanovo. They were asked to renounce their rank. They refused firmly. Father Peter said: Whoever serves the one God, living and true, will never agree to betray his flock and live with evildoers. For these words he was cruelly beaten and left helpless in the cell.

In the morning of 27 October 1937 he was shot in the courtyard of the Ivanovo prison, together with Father Nikolai Rozonov. On 26 December 2003 the Holy Synod numbered him among the New Martyrs of Russia for general veneration. He is commemorated on 27 October, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Ivanovo Metropolis, in the new style.