Matfey Vasilyevich Kazarin

He was born on November 9, 1886, in the village of Pokosy, Zubovo-Polyansky District, Mordovia, in the family of a psalmist.

He completed 4 classes of a theological school and attended Tambov Theological Seminary but did not graduate.

In 1930, he was arrested and sentenced to two years of imprisonment, serving his sentence in the Kozlov (Michurinsk) prison in the Tambov region.

After his release in 1932, he served as a protodeacon in the Ilyinsky Church in Michurinsk alongside Venerable Sebastian of Karaganda.

On August 1, 1937, he was arrested in Michurinsk, accused of participating in a "church-monarchist insurgent organization and counter-revolutionary agitation." He was involved in the group case "The church-monarchist insurgent organization. Michurinsk, 1937."

From the indictment:

"He was part of a church-monarchist insurgent organization. He conducted counter-revolutionary agitation among the population, calling on peasants to organized resistance against Soviet power and to assist the fascists in case of war. He slandered the policies of the party and the government."

On December 6, 1937, the NKVD troika of the Tambov region sentenced him to 8 years in labor camps.

He spent 9 months in the Michurinsk detention house and on May 17, 1938, was sent to the Dzhezkazgan branch of KarLag.

He arrived at the camp on June 3, 1938, and was assigned to general labor.

The case file contains a characterization: "He approaches work conscientiously, takes care of tools, meets the work norm. Does not participate in cultural and mass work, behaves well in everyday life, disciplined."

In 1939, he worked as a guard of a grain warehouse in the 3rd section of KarLag.

He underwent surgery for a stomach illness in the camp. A later entry states: "He is ill almost all the time, so he works on lighter duties as an orderly. He approaches work well, honestly."

He died on November 12, 1942, at 4 PM from right-sided catarrhal pneumonia and ulcerative bleeding in the Dzhezkazgan branch of KarLag.

On February 8, 1962, he was rehabilitated by the Tambov Regional Court for the 1937 repressions.

He was canonized as a New Martyr and Confessor of Russia by the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for general church veneration.