Vladimir Smirnov

Holy Hieromartyr Vladimir Smirnov (Vladimir Alexeyevich) was an archpriest in the Moscow region and was shot on 10 December 1937 at the Butovo firing ground.

He was born in May 1877 in the village of Sosnovy Bor (Petropavlovskoe), in the family of the deacon of the village church. He studied at the Moscow seminary and at the law faculty of Moscow University. In 1917 he was ordained priest. Until 1922 he served at the church on the farm of the Ivanovsky monastery, then in Moscow, where until 1930 he served at the church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils near Novodevichy and at the church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Kropotkin street. He was raised to archpriest. In March 1930 the Khamovniki court sentenced him to be expelled from Moscow, in August his apartment was searched, and on 28 December he was arrested and held at Butyrka, accused of "anti-⁠Soviet agitation". The OGPU Collegium sent him to the Northern Territory for three years.

After serving the term he served at the church in the village of Yaropolets, Volokolamsk district. On 28 November 1937 he was arrested again, again on the charge of "anti-⁠Soviet agitation". On 5 December the troika of the Moscow regional NKVD sentenced him to death, and on 10 December 1937 Archpriest Vladimir Smirnov was shot at Butovo.

The saint is commemorated on 10 December and, in the new style, on 29 May (movable) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and on 5 September (movable) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.