Hieromartyr Ilya (Gromoglasov) of Tver

Hieromartyr Ilya (Ilya Mikhailovich Gromoglasov) was born on July 20, 1869, in the settlement of Yeremshinsky Zavod, Temnikov district, Tambov province. He completed Tambov Theological Seminary and in 1893 graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy (MDA) with a candidate-of-theology degree, remaining as a fellow in the department of the history of the Russian schism. In 1908 he earned his magister of theology for a dissertation on marriage definitions in the Kormchaya (canon-law compendium), and became extraordinary professor at MDA in 1910.

In May 1911 he was dismissed from the Academy for liberal socio-political views, together with a number of other professors removed under Rector Bishop Feodor (Pozdeyevsky). He earned a law degree from Moscow University (1914) and a magister of church law (1916), becoming a privatdocent in Moscow University's Department of Church Law. On April 23, 1917, he was restored to the rank of full professor at MDA in the chair of church law.

He was an active participant in the Pre-Council Assembly and the Local Council of the Orthodox Russian Church of 1917–1918, and in December 1917 was elected a member of the Supreme Church Council. He spoke in support of Patriarch Tikhon's epistle anathematizing the persecutors of the Church.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1922. He was arrested repeatedly: March 22, 1922 (in connection with the campaign to confiscate church valuables) — sentenced to 1.5 years' imprisonment; March 8, 1924 — three years' exile to the Urals; May 19, 1925 — exiled to Surgut. His final arrest was on November 3, 1937, in Tver, on fabricated counter-revolutionary charges.

He was shot on December 4, 1937, and buried in a mass grave at Volyn Cemetery in Tver. He was rehabilitated on December 26, 1958, by the Kalinin Regional Court. He was canonized as a New Martyr and Confessor of Russia by decision of the Tver Diocesan Council in August 2000.