Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr (?) Metrophanes (Devitsky)
1877 — 1920
Also known as: Митрофан Михайлович Девицкий (в миру), прежнее заглавие карточки: «Митрофан Киевский» — не подтверждено
Priest Metrophanes (Devitsky) — a graduate of the Kiev Theological Academy, shot by the Bolsheviks in 1920 after refusing to turn his back to the firing squad; the closest-matching real candidate by name and circumstance for the previously unattributed card "Metrophanes of Kiev," though the "of Kiev" toponym and church-wide canonization status remain unconfirmed.
DOUBLE HONEST WARNING: (1) no saint with the exact title "Metrophanes of Kiev" exists — research found no New Martyr with this epithet; (2) of two real, partially matching candidates — Metrophanes (Devitsky) and Metrophanes (Kornitsky, d. 1937, canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2005, but with almost no connection to Kiev) — Devitsky has been chosen for this card as the closer match by name and possessing a clear, if thin, Kiev connection (through education). His canonization is confirmed by ROCOR (1981), but a separate act of glorification by the Moscow Patriarchate could not be found — his status within the ROC remains unresolved.
Metrophanes Mikhailovich Devitsky graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy in 1903 with a candidate-of-theology degree, but spent his entire priestly ministry in the Vladikavkaz diocese (North Caucasus), with no further connection to Kiev. On February 8, 1920, he was shot by a Bolshevik detachment in the village of Staraya Melovatka — tradition holds he refused to turn his back to the firing squad, meeting death facing his executioners.
He was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981, in the general act concerning the New Martyrs of Russia.
The feast date given follows the ROCOR act; his status in the Moscow Patriarchate calendar is unconfirmed.