Vasily Iosifovich Bova

Born on January 1, 1877, in the city of Kurgan, Tobolsk Governorate, in the family of an icon painter. He received his education at home.

From August 30, 1909, he served as a psalmist in the church of the village of Kamyshevskoye, Kurgan County, Tobolsk Diocese.

On July 29, 1912, he transferred to serve in the Omsk Diocese. From July 2, 1913, to 1914, he served as a psalmist in the village of Novouralskoye, Omsk County, Akmola Region. There was no church in this village, and services were temporarily held in a two-class ministry school on a portable altar dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. There were no special apartments for the clergy, and Vasily Iosifovich and his wife had to live in a rented dugout, receiving 1 ruble per month from the parishioners for rent and buying heating fuel at their own expense.

In 1915, he was transferred as a psalmist to the Mary Magdalene Church in the city of Petropavlovsk.

In 1920, he was ordained a priest and served in the village of Poludino in Northern Kazakhstan.

Since 1929, he lived in Petropavlovsk, attending the Nikolaev Church, which was a stronghold of Orthodoxy in the city during the Renovationist schism.

On November 6, 1937, he was arrested on charges of "counter-revolutionary activities." At the time of his arrest, he was "without specific occupation." He did not plead guilty. On November 11, the NKVD troika for the North Kazakhstan Region sentenced him to execution by shooting.

Executed by shooting on December 4, 1937, in the city of Petropavlovsk, Akmola Region, Kazakhstan.

On April 10, 1989, he was rehabilitated by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Canonized among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for general church veneration.