Zosima Alekseevich Pepenin

He was born on September 25, 1888, in the village of Pepenino, Yaran County, Vyatka Province, into a poor peasant family. He was the fourth child in the family, which already had two older sons, Ivan and Stepan, and a daughter named Matrona, after their mother. After finishing parochial school, Zosima worked as a shepherd in his native village. Inspired by the lives of ancient monks, he would retreat to the forest, dig caves, and pray in seclusion. People in the village would say, "He will either become a priest or a monk." He was also known for his hardworking nature, skill in various crafts, and kind character. At seventeen, he left for the city with his father and brothers to find work, making fur coats, shoes, and doing carpentry. In the spring, when it was time to return home, he decided to stay and, with his brother Stepan, went east, taking a job as a laborer at the Miass railway station near Chelyabinsk and later in a bakery

In mid-1907, he joined the Chelyabinsk Odigitrievsky Women's Monastery as a laborer, where he stayed until the end of 1908. He then moved to Tomsk, where he became a novice at the Bogoroditse-Alekseevsky Monastery. He lived there for about two years, and then until 1913, he stayed at the Irkutsk Ascension-Innokentievsky Monastery.

After graduating from the Irkutsk Theological Seminary in 1913, he married the daughter of the well-known Irkutsk archpriest Mikhail Chircev, a missionary and educator of the Yakuts.
During their married life, the couple had four children.
That same year, Zosima Alekseevich successfully passed the exam to become a psalmist and was assigned to the Resurrection Cathedral in the city of Verkholensk.

In 1914, he was ordained a deacon and in 1917, a priest.
From 1918, he served in the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Borisovskoye, Barnaul District, Tomsk Province.

During the Civil War, Father Zosima's life was twice in mortal danger. Once, he was captured by a White Guard detachment but was soon released at the request of the local population. In August 1919, the house of the priest was taken over as the headquarters of Rogov's band (the anarchist Grigory Rogov), and Father Zosima was taken to Barnaul. Miraculously, through the efforts of his wife, he avoided death and returned home. However, the Soviet authorities began to persecute him.

In 1921, he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment in the Barnaul prison. His wife, to be close to him, left their home and moved with their children to Barnaul, where she worked as a caretaker in a children's shelter and as a passport clerk. In 1922, Father Zosima was released for exemplary work in the prison shoemaking workshop.

In 1923, he was arrested again, shortly after the birth of their son. The infant, Seraphim, lived only a short time, and Father Zosima was released only to bury his son. He was freed a year later and resumed his service in Borisovskoye, where they had another son, Konstantin.
Facing another potential arrest, in 1925, Father Zosima and his family moved to Irkutsk to be with his wife Alexandra's relatives. Her father, priest Mikhail Chircev, had already passed away by this time, and her mother, Alexandra Vasilyevna, had moved to Moscow with her other children to be with her eldest son.

Since 1925, Father Zosima was frequently transferred to different parishes. This was a strategy by the Church at the time to protect its clergy from persecution and arrest. For about two years, he served as the rector (and sole priest) of the church in the village of Koza, Yaroslavl region. He was then transferred to the town of Lyubim in the Vladimir region, where there were several priests, and subsequently to the village of Shapkino near the town of Kovrov in the Vladimir region.

In 1929, he was appointed the rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Krylatskoye. His parish included five villages: Krylatskoye, Terekhovo, Tatarovo, Verkhnie Mnevniki, and Nizhnie Mnevniki. Here, Father Zosima served alone, assisted by a psalmist who lived at the church with his wife and daughter. Father Zosima and his family rented a room in a private house on Mozhaisk Highway.

Matushka Alexandra, wherever Father Zosima served, sang in the choir, was a choir director, and taught the children of parishioners. Father Zosima greatly valued and cherished his family, which was marked by love and harmony. Matushka was known for her strictness, while Father Zosima was gentle. Parishioners revered Father Zosima as a strong prayerful intercessor and loved him for his kindness and inner joy.

On Holy Saturday, April 27, 1935, Father Zosima was arrested on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation" and imprisoned in Butyrka prison. Among other things, Father Zosima was accused of having "lived in the territory of the Whites."
Informers claimed that his sermons "agitated against Soviet power." Father Zosima did not confirm any of the accusations against him and did not acknowledge the charges of anti-Soviet agitation. He insisted that the only topics of conversation between him and his parishioners were liturgical matters and that his visits to their homes were solely to fulfill his pastoral duty. He admitted to only one fact: when a parishioner asked him, "Why don't you give up serving?" Father Zosima replied, "I am a believer and convinced in this."

Nevertheless, the indictment dated September 22 stated: "Pepenin Zosima Alekseevich, psalmist Vasily Nikolaevich Sharov, and choir singer Semyon Vasilyevich Mukhin, having close ties among themselves, conducted organized systematic anti-Soviet agitation aimed at undermining the policies of the party and Soviet power."

On October 11, 1935, the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced him under Article 58-10 of the RSFSR Penal Code to three years in Karaganda Corrective Labor Camp (Karlag). Before his departure, there was a brief "visit" where it was possible to see Father Zosima for a few minutes in a crowd of prisoners being sent to various destinations. Matushka, with her strong character and having endured several of her husband's arrests, realized that she was seeing Father Zosima for the last time.

Letters from Father Zosima were rare. In his last letter, he wrote that he would soon be transferred to a free settlement.

On September 19, 1937, the day of his anticipated transfer, Father Zosima was arrested in Karlag on charges that, "maintaining close relationships with those hostile to Soviet power and the Soviet government among the prisoners, he conducted agitation work, saying that under Tsar Nicholas the working class lived better." He did not admit guilt to the charges. On October 31 of the same year, he was sentenced to death by the NKVD Troika of the Karaganda region.

He was executed by shooting on November 2, 1937. The place of burial is unknown.

He was rehabilitated on April 28, 1989, by the prosecutor's office and the KGB Administration of the Karaganda region for the repressions of 1937.

He was canonized in August 2000 by the decision of the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.