Peter Zefirov

Holy Hieromartyr Peter Zefirov, a priest, served in the village of Nikolo-⁠na-⁠Edome in Yaroslavl province and was shot in the yard of the Romanov-⁠Borisoglebsk prison in July 1918.

He was born in 1879 in Yaroslavl province. After the Yaroslavl Theological Seminary he worked for three years as a teacher in a parish church school, then married and was ordained priest for the church of St Nicholas in the village of Nikolo-⁠na-⁠Edome, Romanov-⁠Borisoglebsk district. He had six children. Besides his parish ministry he was head and teacher of religion of the local church school and teacher of religion at the Vaulovo zemstvo school. In 1909 he was elected a member of the deanery council.

In July 1918 he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. He stayed only a short while in the Romanov-⁠Borisoglebsk prison and was soon shot in its yard. The news of the killing passed from members of the Yaroslavl Diocesan Council to the Commission on the persecution of the Russian Church, set up beside the Sacred Council of 1917-1918, which was still at work and had already begun to gather testimonies about the new martyrs.

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