Ioann Ivanovich Smolichev

Ioann Ivanovich Smolichev was born on January 27, 1889, in the village of Knyazhichi, Glukhovsky Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate, into a priest's family. He received a secondary education and studied at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy before the revolution.

In 1919, he served as a feldsher in Kolchak's army in Tomsk. From the end of 1919, he was an assistant physician in the Red Army for a year.

From 1920 to 1924, he worked as a teacher.

In May 1924, in the city of Glukhov, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Damaskin (Tsedrik) of Glukhov, vicar of the Chernigov Diocese.

In 1930, he was arrested by the NKVD in Chernigov for counter-revolutionary activities and sentenced to five years in a correctional labor camp.

On October 27, 1937, he was sentenced again by the NKVD troika for counter-revolutionary activities and received another five-year sentence in a correctional labor camp.

He arrived at Karlag with the Chelyabinsk transport on December 7, 1936.

He was at the Burminsk division of Karlag, working as an accountant-bookkeeper.

On August 14, 1937, he was arrested in Karlag. He was detained in the camp for conducting illegal religious services, which was considered "counter-revolutionary activity." When asked by the investigator if he knew that "religion is the opium of the people," he replied, "I do not agree that religion is the opium of the people; on the contrary, I assert that properly understood religious ideas necessarily ennoble a person."

On September 10, 1937, the NKVD troika for the Karaganda region sentenced him to execution by shooting. He was executed along with Bishop Damaskin and buried in an unmarked common grave.

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