Peter Smorodintsev

Holy Hieromartyr Peter Smorodintsev (Pyotr Semyonovich Smorodintsev), a priest, was born in 1866. He entered the Perm seminary, but in 1880 left the first class; in 1885 he was appointed psalmist at the church of the holy unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in the village of Yushkovskoe, Yekaterinburg district, and in 1899 was ordained deacon for the same church. On 16 March 1906 he was moved to the Ascension church of the Verkhne-⁠Ufaleysky plant, and on 12 April to the Holy Trinity church at Brusnyatskoe. In 1908 he was ordained priest for the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Krasnopolye, Verkhoturye district.

He had great practical sense and was drawn to ideas of easing peasant labour and improving village life. He built a steam mill at Yushkovskoe, brought electricity to the houses, set up a repair workshop, and the village became almost an autonomous industrial and agricultural complex. He was concerned also with the material independence of the peasants, so he founded the local cooperative movement and a credit society, of which he was chairman. More and more household duties consumed his time and no longer fit with pastoral service, so in 1917 he left the staff. But he was not content to be without the service of God, and in 1918, shortly before Pentecost, at his own request he was appointed to the church of Saint John the Forerunner in the village of Kochnevskoe. He served there on Pentecost and on the day of the Holy Spirit, then went home, to Yushkovskoe, to hand over his worldly affairs.

He had barely drunk a glass of tea when he was arrested by Red Guards who came for him, and sent to Kasli. Taking leave of his family, he blessed them all and said: Live with God, and it is not given me to see you again. His sister, present, wished to object, but Father Peter firmly confirmed that they were seeing each other for the last time. At Kasli the Bolsheviks sentenced him to death, and he, together with Archpriest Alexander Miropolsky, was taken fifteen versts from Kasli and shot near the little river Gorkaya, on 23 June 1918. Later, when the Whites came, he was recognized only by his cassock: his head was smashed to bits with an axe or pick, and on his body were two bullet wounds. He was buried at Kasli beside the Dormition church, together with Archpriest Alexander Miropolsky and the priest Peter Belyaev.

He is commemorated on 6 July, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Yekaterinburg and on 11 October (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Chelyabinsk Metropolis, in the new style.