Vladimir Vvedensky

Saint Vladimir Vvedensky, hieromartyr, was a priest of the Russian Church and was shot in 1937. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000, for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated on 21 October by the old calendar and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He was born on 14 July 1881 in the village (churchyard) of Arkhangelskoe, Kalyazin district, Tver governorate, in the family of the priest Dmitry Vvedensky. He finished the theological seminary of Tver and was ordained priest. He lived in Sknyatino, Kalyazin district, where he served in the church. He was married and had sons Dmitry and Michael.

In 1937 he was arrested and held in the prison of Kashin. Witnesses were called, who testified that the suspect refuted the materialist teaching, defending the philosophy of idealism, and said that the existence of God would be recognized by the Bolsheviks as well. But one witness gave aggravating testimony. Priest Vvedensky had said that the idea of collectivization was doomed and that the collective farms would fall apart in time, and had asserted that the Republican army of Spain had only defeats to its account and that the Soviet newspapers hid the truth on this question. The indictment said that although the accused did not admit guilt, he was sufficiently exposed by witness testimony. The NKVD troika sentenced Vvedensky to death by shooting.