Valentin Lukyanov

Holy Venerable Martyr Valentin Lukyanov, a hieromonk, was born on 2 August 1875 in Kaluga province, in the family of the peasant Jacob Lukyanov, and was named Basil at baptism. He studied at the parish school, married and had three children, but soon after the birth of the last he was widowed. In 1906 he entered the Trinity-⁠Sergius Lavra, on 26 May 1908 he was enrolled as a novice and, having fine musical and singing gifts, was assigned to the choir. On 7 November 1915 he was tonsured a monk with the name Valentin.

In 1920 the Lavra was closed by the godless. The monk Valentin became psalm-⁠reader at the Pyatnitskaya church in Sergiev Posad, where the rector was Archimandrite Vassian (Pyatnitsky). Patriarch Tikhon asked the opinion of the Lavra's vicar, Archimandrite Kronid (Lyubimov), and he agreed to the appointment as psalm-⁠reader but not to ordination as hierodeacon. Archimandrite Vassian pressed again, writing that the parish had many services in the church and in the homes of the faithful, that he, being ill, could not perform them alone, and that the monk Valentin had served all summer willingly, diligently and without pay, as reader and chanter. The Patriarch granted the request and on 20 September 1920 ordained him hierodeacon for the Pyatnitskaya church, where he served until it was closed. Ordained hieromonk on 26 November 1923, he served until 1930 at the church of Saint Nicholas in Naro-⁠Fominsk, and after it was closed at the church in Kuntsevo.

On 26 January 1933 the authorities of Kuntsevo announced the closing of the last church in the town. The faithful did not accept the decision and sent the All-⁠Russian Central Executive Committee a petition to cancel it, signed by thousands of residents. They pointed out that the church, once rural, had become a town church and was the only one left, that it served tens of thousands of people, and that beside it was the town's only cemetery, whose closing would deprive believers of prayers at burials. The authorities refused and closed both the church and the cemetery. After this Father Valentin served at the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Romashkovo.

On 26 November 1937 the NKVD questioned two witnesses on duty from Kuntsevo, one of whom said that on a day in June 1937 Father Valentin talked with some women, read them from a religious book and explained it, saying that we live in a time when the Orthodox faith and clergy are not in honour with Soviet power, that the communists strive to destroy the Orthodox Church, but believers must resist by spreading the word of God among their acquaintances, in the hope that the tyranny will end. The same day the priest was arrested, taken to Taganka and interrogated the next day. He denied having used his priestly position for anti-⁠Soviet activity or having spread rumours about the oppression of religion.

On 27 November the investigation ended, and on 29 November 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a camp. The hieromonk Valentin Lukyanov died on 1 June 1940 in a labour camp in Novosibirsk region and was buried in an unknown grave. He was numbered among the saints in the year 2000.

He is commemorated on 1 June, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 1 March (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Novosibirsk Metropolia, on 19 July in the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh, and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, all in the new style.