Vladimir Terentev

Holy Confessor Vladimir Terentev was abbot of the Zosima hermitage of Smolensk and died in exile in Kazakhstan on 3 March 1933.

He was born in 1872 in the village of Shibanovo in the Pskov district, in the family of the peasant Terentius Terentev, and was baptized Basil. On 15 August 1898 he entered the Paraclete hermitage in the Alexandrov district, Vladimir province. On 25 May 1901 he moved to the Zosima hermitage of Smolensk, where he worked as a roofer and painter. On 28 March 1907 he was tonsured a monk with the name Vladimir. On 31 May 1912 he was moved to the Holy Spirit monastery in Tsaritsyn, diocese of Saratov, as assistant treasurer. On 30 July 1912 he was ordained hierodeacon, on 5 August hieromonk, and on 8 August he was appointed temporary head of the monastery. From 14 April 1917 he returned to the Zosima hermitage. In 1923 he was raised to abbot. In the same year the hermitage was closed by the godless and turned into an agricultural artel; he stayed in it until its abolition in 1927, then settled at Sergiev Posad and worked for people as a roofer.

At the end of 1929 and the beginning of 1930 Soviet power renewed the persecution. All the monasteries were closed, and the monks and nuns had scattered through towns and villages, but outside the walls too they led a monastic life, living from handwork and serving in the churches that remained open. In April-⁠May 1931 the OGPU arrested the monks and nuns of the Moscow region, accusing them of having united in a church-⁠monarchist organization, under the banner of defending the faith, carrying on anti-⁠Soviet work. Sixty persons were arrested in all.

Abbot Vladimir was arrested on 5 April 1931 and, after a short questioning at Zagorsk, held at Butyrka. On 1 May, when the charge was read to him, he said that he had happened to speak to the faithful about the Antichrist, but jokingly, since no one knows the time of his coming, and that he did not regard Soviet power as his sign; that it was permitted by God as a punishment of the Russian people for sins and for admonition, and that he did not admit guilt, not belonging to any anti-⁠Soviet organization. On 6 June 1931 the OGPU Collegium sentenced him to five years of exile. He died in exile in Kazakhstan on 3 March 1933 and was buried in an unknown place.

The saint is commemorated on 3 March (movable) and, in the new style, on 7 February (movable) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 July (movable) in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Volgograd Land, on 6 July in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, on 5 September (movable) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, on 1 October in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of the Vladimir Land and on 10 December in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Radonezh.