Saint Martyr Alexander Vershinsky was born on March 6, 1873, in the village of Kunganova, Tver Province, into the family of deacon Andrei Vershinsky. In 1897, he graduated from the Tver Theological Seminary and became a psalmist in the Borisoglebsk Cathedral. In 1900, he was ordained as a deacon and later as a priest. From 1927, he served in the Ilyinsky Church in Torzhok until it was closed by the godless. In 1937, he was arrested and sentenced for counter-revolutionary activities, after which he was shot on December 8, 1937, and buried in a mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
Martyr Pavel Kuzovkov was born on June 15, 1875, in the village of Ivanteevka, Moscow Province. He worked in factories and was elected chairman of the church council of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. In 1937, he was arrested and shot on December 8, 1937.
Martyr Nikolai Kopninsky was born on November 20, 1876, in the village of Ivanteevka. He worked as a clerk and was a member of the church council. In 1937, he was also arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison, dying on March 15, 1938, in the camps.
