New Martyr 20th century

New Hieromartyr Gregory Averin

1889-1937

Also known as Gregory Averin, Priest

A priest of Ivanovo martyred in the Soviet persecution (1937)

Feast Day

September 7

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Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.

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Commemorated as

The Holy New Hieromartyr Gregory Averin, Priest

Life

Gregory Ivanovich Averin was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church who served in the Ivanovo region and was put to death during the Soviet persecution of the Church in 1937. He is numbered among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Born to a peasant family in 1889, he trained as a teacher before his ordination, endured repeated arrests and terms of imprisonment through the 1930s, and was finally executed in a labour camp. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

Timeline 6 moments Read Hide

1889 Birth Born on 24 January 1889 in the village of Valy, Yuryevets district, Kostroma province, into a peasant family.
1910s-1921 Teacher, then priest Completed a teachers' seminary and worked as a schoolteacher in Kologriv; he was ordained a priest in 1921.
1930 First camp sentence Sentenced in January 1930 to five years in a labour camp on charges of anti-Soviet activity; after release he resumed parish service in the Ivanovo region.
1935-1936 Renewed arrest Arrested again and in 1936 sentenced to a further term of corrective labour, being sent to the Temirtau mine in the Karaganda region.
1937 Martyrdom Arrested once more at the camp, condemned to death by an NKVD troika, and executed on 20 September 1937.
2000 Canonization Glorified among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Jubilee Bishops' Council in August 2000.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributions Read Hide

Life and ministry

Before his ordination, Gregory Averin trained at a teachers' seminary and worked in a church-parish school in Kologriv. He was ordained a celibate priest in 1921 and served in the Kostroma area and afterward at the church in the village of Simeon, Puchezh district, in the Ivanovo region.

Like many clergy of his generation, his ministry unfolded under mounting state hostility to the Church. He was first arrested as early as 1918 amid the unrest of the civil-war years and released, but from 1930 onward he was repeatedly imprisoned.

Imprisonment and martyrdom

Sentenced in 1930 to five years in a labour camp, he returned afterward to parish service, only to be arrested again in the mid-1930s and sentenced to a further term of corrective labour. He was assigned to the Temirtau mine in the Karaganda region of the Kazakh SSR.

In 1937, during the height of the Soviet terror, he was arrested once more within the camp system, condemned to death by an NKVD troika, and shot. He is commemorated among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Commemorated with Read Hide

Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Synaxis

Notes

Among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Sources: Synaxarion