Vladimir Vvedensky

Holy Hieromartyr Vladimir Vvedensky was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, born in 1869 at Shuya, Vladimir governorate, and died on 3 April 1931 on Anzer Island, in the Solovki camp. He was entered in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by decision of the Holy Synod of 12 March 2002. He is commemorated on 3 April, the day of his death (21 March by the old calendar; the source wrongly says by the Julian calendar), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk.

He was born into the family of a psalm-⁠reader. In 1883 he graduated with first-⁠class marks from the theological school of Vladimir. After finishing the Vladimir seminary in 1889 he married and on 10 March 1891 was ordained priest for the church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Lezhnevo, Kovrov district, Vladimir governorate; from the 1920s he was its rector. In 1922 he was briefly arrested in the campaign of confiscating church valuables.

At the beginning of 1930 the authorities decided to close the church of the Nativity of Christ. On 4 February Father Vladimir was arrested, accused of agitation against the collective farms, taxes and other measures of the Soviet power, and of anti-⁠Soviet activity, which, in the view of the authorities, consisted of spreading religious views through churches, services of supplication and sermons. He did not admit guilt. Asked about his attitude to the Renovationists, who with the support of the authorities had spread in those parts, the priest answered that neither he nor the clergy of the church agreed with them.

On 6 February he was moved to the prison at Shuya; at the same time at Lezhnevo other priests who served at the church, members of the parish council and nuns who performed in the church the obedience of altar servers and psalm-⁠readers were arrested. On 11 February the investigation was concluded. The indictment said that the anti-⁠Soviet group at Lezhnevo carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation and propaganda aimed at thwarting the measures being carried out and at inciting the peasants and workers of the Lezhnevo district against the Soviet power. On 15 February the OGPU troika sentenced Vladimir Vvedensky to three years in a camp. After the sentence the priest's family (his wife, three daughters and a son) was deprived of civil rights, and the village authorities sent them to the hardest public works (logging). Petitions for restoration of rights were rejected.

On 30 March 1930 he arrived at the camp, where he worked as orderly, laundry drier and collector of salvage. On 5 March 1931 the administration of the Solovki special camp characterised him as having anti-⁠Soviet views. At that time he was at the Golgotha detachment on Anzer Island. Here, at an outpatient examination, he was diagnosed: myocarditis, arteriosclerosis, exhaustion and senile weakness. On 26 March, because of the worsening of his health, Father Vladimir was placed in the hospital in the former Golgotha-⁠Crucifixion skete, where he soon died. On 5 April he was buried in the cemetery beside the church of the Resurrection on Anzer Island. In January 2018, at Lezhnevo, a memorial plaque was placed on the building in which Father Vladimir taught in the early twentieth century.