Vassian Pyatnitsky

Archbishop Vassian Pyatnitsky (born Vladimir Vasilievich Pyatnitsky, 1879 to 9 January 1941) was a lawyer, then a monk and archbishop of Tambov and Shatsk, who died in the camp of Ukhtpechlag. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia by a decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of 27 December 2000. The source says that since 2013, for reasons not explained, his commemoration was removed from the calendar published by the Moscow Patriarchate's publishing house. His life also includes episodes linked with the renovationist movements, which we give as they are.

The lawyer

He was born in Moscow into a merchant family. In 1902 he finished the Faculty of Law of the University of Moscow. He worked as assistant to the lawyer Fyodor Nikiforovich Plevako, then as a lawyer. He was married for a short time and then divorced. In 1909 he left a successful career as a lawyer and entered as a novice the Paraclete hermitage near the Holy Trinity Lavra, and from 1910 he was a novice of the Lavra. On 6 October 1913 he was tonsured a monk, on 13 October hierodeacon, and from 15 August 1914 hieromonk. In 1913 to 1917 he studied at the Moscow Theological Academy and graduated with the title of candidate of theology, remaining at the academy as professorial fellow in the chair of biblical archaeology and Hebrew. In 1914 to 1916 he was priest of a military hospital train. The memoirist S. A. Volkov wrote of him that he knew how to separate the realm of faith from that of positive knowledge: in the first he was firm and obedient, in the other consistently critical and analytical; his sermons were striking both in content and in craftsmanship. From 1919 he served at the Pyatnitskaya church in Sergiev Posad and was raised to hegumen.

The bishop

On 8 August 1921 he was consecrated bishop of Yegoryevsk, vicar of Moscow. On 29 October 1921 he was arrested at Yegoryevsk, taken to the prison at Ryazan and, from 2 January 1922, held at Butyrka. Believers asked for his release; several hundred signed a letter to the tribunal. On 7 February 1922, at the request of the Political Red Cross, he was released on bail. From 1922 he lived in Moscow, serving at the church of the Annunciation at Berezhki. He recognized the renovationist Higher Church Administration; on 26 June 1922 he was renamed by it bishop of Yegoryevsk. In August 1922 he took part in the congress of the "Living Church", but on 20 August he joined the Union of Church Revival, whose central committee elected him a member. In December 1922 he was appointed bishop of Vladikavkaz, an appointment he did not accept. In 1923 he repented before Patriarch Tikhon and was left on the see of Yegoryevsk. In December 1925 he joined the group of bishops led by Archbishop Gregory (Yatskovsky), for governing the church by council, which formed the Provisional Higher Church Council, a movement later called the "Gregorian schism"; he did not sign, however, the epistle criticizing Patriarch Tikhon and Metropolitan Peter and did not enter the council. In May 1926 he repented and left the movement, and then was a supporter of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky).

Tambov and the camp

From 22 June 1927 he was bishop of Kozlov and administrator of the diocese of Tambov, and from 9 April 1930 archbishop of Tambov and Shatsk. In 1930 to 1931 he was arrested on the charge of anti-⁠Soviet activity. On 26 October 1935 he was arrested again and on 25 April 1936 sentenced to eight years in a camp, served at Ukhtpechlag, where he worked first at timber felling, then was declared an invalid. According to some data, before dying of dystrophy he was moved to the prison hospital of Sverdlovsk, where he died. He left a dissertation on the Old Testament miracles of resurrection (1918) and sermons, among them "Sermon on the Sunday of All the Saints of Russia".