Zachariah (Lobov)

He was born on March 23, 1865, in the village of Petrovka, Pavlovsky district, Voronezh region. He graduated from the Don Theological Seminary.

On September 8, 1888, he was ordained a priest.

In 1903, he was appointed the sacristan of the cathedral in the city of Novocherkassk.

He was elevated to the rank of protopriest.

On September 22, 1923, he was consecrated bishop of Nizhne-Chirsky, a vicar of the Don diocese.

From October 14, 1923, he was bishop of Aksai, a vicar of the Don diocese.

In 1924, he was convicted by the OGPU Collegium under Article 58-10. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and was held in the Solovki Special Purpose Camp until 1926.

In July 1923, he participated in the drafting of the "Solovetsky Letter" (an appeal to the Soviet government by Orthodox bishops from the Solovetsky Islands).

In 1927-1928, he was in exile in Mari.

In 1928, he was appointed bishop of Novotorzhsky, a vicar of the Tver diocese.

On April 24, 1928, he was appointed bishop of Bezhetsk, a vicar of the Tver diocese.

On April 24, 1929, he was appointed to the Voronezh see and elevated to the rank of archbishop.

He was arrested on May 23, 1935. On September 10, 1935, he was convicted under Article 58-10 by the Special Collegium of the Voronezh Regional Court, which "found Lobov guilty of being a class-alien element and being hostile to Soviet power and its measures. From 1934-1935, in the church premises, in the church watchman’s house, during sermons, and in the presence of witnesses... he repeatedly conducted counter-revolutionary agitation on issues of socialist restructuring of agriculture and the dissemination of government loans."

He was sentenced under Article 58, p. 10, part 1 of the Criminal Code to 5 years in prison, and a fine of 25,000 rubles was imposed, to be paid from the confiscated valuables of the convict - 23,191 rubles in cash and silver items.

Archbishop Zachariah was transferred to the Karaganda labor camp from the Michurinsk prison on February 8, 1936. He was assigned to the Churubai-Nura division as a barracks attendant. His personal file contains the following characteristic: "Polite with the administration and inmates, disciplined, conducts newspaper readings, and teaches illiterate inmates." The medical commission diagnosed him with senile decrepitude and inguinal hernia, and he was declared disabled.

In the Karaganda labor camp, he was re-arrested on charges that "...in the Churubai-Nura division, it was reported that inmate Lobov was engaged in counter-revolutionary terrorist agitation against the party and government decisions." On September 14, 1937, the NKVD Troika of the Karaganda region sentenced Lobov Z.P. to death by shooting.

The sentence was carried out on September 21, 1937, at midnight.

On June 30, 1992, he was rehabilitated by the Voronezh Regional Prosecutor's Office under Articles 3 and 5 of the RSFSR Law "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions" dated October 18, 1991.

He was glorified as a saint and included in the assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church for universal veneration in August 2000 by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church upon the proposal of the Alma-Ata diocese.