Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr Michael Markov
1881–1938
Also known as: Сщмч. Михаил, пресвитер (1938), Михаил Марков, Горетовский, Михаил Михайлович Марков
A village priest of the Mozhaisk district near Moscow who twice saved his church from closure; arrested in 1937 and sentenced to ten years in the camps, he died in the Mariinsk camp on 16 June 1938.
Hieromartyr Michael Markov was born on 4 November 1881 in the village of Goretovo, Mozhaisk district, Moscow province, into a priest's family. He graduated from the Bethany (Vifanskaya) Seminary in 1905, taught in parish schools, and on 15 December 1908 was ordained by Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) to succeed his late father at the Trinity church in Goretovo.
In 1929 the authorities tried to close the church by demanding insurance payments; the parishioners raised the money, and the priest was arrested for "forced collections", though the sentence was soon reduced to a fine. In 1933 he again defended the church against closure and was arrested on 11 March 1933; he refused to admit guilt and was sentenced to three years in the Karaganda camp, later commuted to exile in Kazakhstan.
Returning in 1936, he served from April 1937 at the Transfiguration church in Goryachkino and repaired it. He was arrested on 29 November 1937 and on 7 December 1937 sentenced by an NKVD troika to ten years in a labour camp. He died in the Mariinsk camp (Kemerovo region) on 16 June 1938 and was buried in an unmarked grave. He is commemorated on 3/16 June.