Peter Pavlushkov

Holy Hieromartyr Peter Pavlushkov, an archpriest, was born in 1865 at Vladimir, in the family of a priest. In 1892 he finished the Kiev Theological Academy with the title of candidate in theology and was appointed to the Tula seminary, where from 26 February 1893 he taught Holy Scripture and psychology. He was a member of the audit commission of the Tula consistory for checking the reports of the spiritual schools and of the trusteeship for the poor, and from 1907 inspector of the seminary. He received the Order of Saint Anne third class and the Order of Saint Stanislaus second and third class. He was married and had five children.

On 30 September 1917 he was appointed rector of the Tula seminary. After the events of 1917 the buildings of the spiritual schools were confiscated, the seminary was closed at the beginning of 1918, and for two years Father Peter taught at a school in Tula. On 2 February 1921 Bishop Juvenal of Tula ordained him priest and named him abbot of the church of the Twelve Holy Apostles, where he remained to his martyr's end.

In the campaign for the confiscation of valuables he was arrested and charged with anti-⁠Soviet agitation, made in sermons from the ambo, and with concealing church valuables; he was sentenced to three years in a house of correction. By amnesty the sentence was halved and after one year and eight months he was freed. In the meantime the Renovationist diocesan administration had appointed another priest to the church of the Holy Apostles, but the parishioners, glad of the return of their beloved shepherd, drove out the Renovationist. So one more parish of Tula returned to the Orthodox Church.

On 9 September 1937 Archpriest Peter Pavlushkov was arrested again, on the charge that at the church of the Twelve Apostles there had existed a counter-⁠revolutionary church group led by the abbot of the church, a man of higher academic education, who wished to unite the faithful around the church to fight Soviet power, speaking openly against its measures and propagating fascism. On 19 November 1937 the sentence of death was pronounced. He was shot in the Tesnitsky forest on 23 November 1937.

He is commemorated on 23 November, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on 5 October in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tula, in the new style.