Vladimir Zubkovich

Holy Hieromartyr Vladimir Zubkovich was a priest in the village of Smolevichi, Minsk province, and was shot on 31 January 1938.

He was born on 26 March 1863 in the village of Smolevichi in the Borisov district, in the family of the priest Gabriel Zubkovich. He graduated from the Minsk seminary in 1885 and for two years was a junior controller at the Minsk excise administration. In 1887 he was appointed psalm-⁠reader at the church in Starchitsa, Igumen district. On 29 June 1888 he was ordained deacon, and on 3 July priest, and sent to the church in Smolevichi, as teacher of religion at the people's school. For his teaching of the Law of God, for the singing he taught without payment and for the choir founded at the school, the Minsk directorate of people's schools expressed its thanks. In 1893 he entered the council of the deanery, in 1896 he became supervisor of the parish schools of the Borisov district. From 1900 he taught the Law of God at the girls' school in Minsk and served at the school church, and on 11 May 1901 he was appointed rector at Smolevichi. From 1907 he served as assistant inspector at the Minsk seminary, and in 1909 he received the pectoral cross. The inspector of the seminary wrote that "his deep religiosity and good disposition increased his beneficial influence on the pupils", and an examiner called him a "warm-⁠hearted man, modest and attentive to the pupils".

His zealous service weakened his health. On 21 July 1915 he resigned from the post of assistant inspector and asked for a pension, but two years of service were lacking and he asked again for an appointment in the diocesan service. On 10 June 1916 he was appointed assistant inspector at the Tambov seminary. A year later the two revolutions came, and he returned to serve at the church in Smolevichi.

He was arrested on 29 December 1937, sentenced to death and shot on 31 January 1938.

The saint is commemorated on 31 January and, in the new style, on 7 February (movable) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and on 11 July (movable) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Belarus.