Prochorus Mikhailov

Holy Martyr Prochorus Mikhailov, a peasant of the parish of Gnezdovo, Vyshny Volochyok district, Tver province, died in April 1918 because he defended the village church against the plundering of its property. He suffered together with Peter Zhukov and other villagers.

In March 1918 a party of local officials and Red Guards came to the church of the Sign of the Mother of God in Gnezdovo with an order to make an inventory of church goods. They took all the silver and copper, the vestments and all the church's money, although the wooden church was new and poor. The man who had given the order drowned shortly afterward, throwing himself from a bridge while being taken under guard, and the peasants took this as a punishment from God for the plundering of churches.

At the district assembly in April the parishioners reproached the guards for the unlawful seizure of the church's property; among its most zealous defenders were Prochorus Mikhailov and Peter Zhukov. The guards arrested some thirty people on the spot, beat them and took them to Vyshny Volochyok, killing ten on the way. Prochorus Mikhailov was beaten for two days, and on the road he received eight bayonet wounds; he was shot at the ninth verst, when he had lost consciousness and no longer felt the torments.

On 8 April the bodies of the confessors were buried with honour in their parish. Bishop Seraphim (Alexandrov) of Tver blessed that the event be made known in the whole diocese and that memorial services be served in all the churches.

St Prochorus is commemorated on 19 April, on 18 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver and on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, in the new style.