Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr John Znamensky
1868 — 1923
Also known as: Иван Васильевич Знаменский, Иоанн Знаменский, иерей, священник Иоанн Знаменский
A village priest of Semirechye who served in the Turkestan diocese for over twenty years; shot by the Bolsheviks in Taldy-Kurgan in 1923.
Hieromartyr John Znamensky was born on 8 March 1868 in the village of Vladykino in Vologda province (another account names St Petersburg district), the son of the priest Vasily Znamensky. He finished the Belozersk theological school in 1882 and in 1887 became a reader at the Trinity church in the village of Varnakushka, Novgorod province.
In 1898 he moved to the Turkestan diocese, serving first in the village of Pokrovskoye (Przhevalsk district, Semirechye) and from 1902 in Tokmak. In 1903 he was ordained priest for the church of the village of Georgievskoye in Pishpek district and taught religion at the parish school; in 1904–1906 he served at the church of the Archangel Michael in the Cossack village of Golubevskaya, then returned to Georgievskoye.
On 21 March 1923 Father John was shot by the Bolsheviks in Taldy-Kurgan (now Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan) and buried in an unmarked grave. In 2001 the Holy Synod added him to the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia; he is also commemorated among the saints of the Central Asian Metropolitan District. Feast: 8/21 March.