Aretha Yeremkin
Martyr
Martyr Arefa (Arefiy) Petrovich Yeryomkin was born in 1884 in the village of Krasivka of the Narovchat district of the Penza province. He did not receive an education, spending his whole life engaged in peasant labor. He had a wife, Fekla, and five sons.
In 1937, he was arrested on suspicion of counter-revolutionary activity. He was accused of "religious conversations" and provocative rumors about the fall of Soviet power. He did not admit his guilt. On August 10, 1937, he was shot by the verdict of the troika of the NKVD of the MSSR.
He was glorified in the ranks of saints by the Archierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
