Hieromartyr Pavlin (Kroshechkin), Archbishop of Mogilev

PREVIOUSLY EMPTY DATE FILLED IN (October 21/November 3 — day of execution). Identity confirmed: Hieromartyr Pavlin (secular name Pyotr Kuzmich Kroshechkin).

Born December 19, 1879, in the village of Kerenka, Mokshan district, Penza province, into a peasant family. Left fatherless early, he was raised by his devout mother; after a pilgrimage to the Sarov Hermitage the desire for monastic life awoke in him, and in 1895, aged 16, he entered Sarov Monastery. He later lived at St. Nicholas-Babaevsky Monastery, completed the Moscow Theological Academy, was ordained hieromonk in 1910, and took monastic vows with the name Pavlin at Novospassky Monastery in Moscow, living there about 17 years and serving as acting superior from 1920.

On May 2, 1921, he was consecrated Bishop of Rylsk, vicar of the Kursk diocese, and subsequently governed the Polotsk-Vitebsk (from 1926), Perm (from 1927), and Kaluga (from 1930/31) sees, becoming Archbishop of Mogilev in June 1933. There he worked energetically to overcome the Renovationist and autocephalist schisms.

Arrested October 2, 1935, on charges of counter-revolutionary activity, he was sentenced in April 1936 to ten years in a labor camp, and was shot on October 21 (November 3 N.S.), 1937, at the Kemerovo camp together with other clergy. He was glorified among the New Martyrs at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.