Presbyter
Saint Martyr Arefa was born on October 24, 1888, in the village of Dolzhik, Zhytomyr County, Volhynia Province, to peasant parents Ioakim and Anna Nasonov. After graduating from a ministerial school, he began teaching in the village of Dolzhik. On August 1, 1914, he was ordained as a priest for the church in the same village, while continuing his teaching duties. He converted many schismatics to Orthodoxy, for which he earned the respect of Archbishop Antoniy (Khrapovitsky).
In 1916, he moved to the village of Golysheva in Rovno County, and then in 1931, he was arrested by the OGPU but was soon released without charges. After the revolution, he was deprived of voting rights, and his family was listed as deprived. In 1931, he moved to Mozhaysk, where he served in the church of Saints Joachim and Anna. On September 3, 1932, he was arrested and placed in the Butyrka prison, accused of anti-Soviet agitation. On September 11, 1932, the OGPU troika sentenced him to three years of exile in Kazakhstan.
After escaping from exile, he lived in the Penza region for about 15 years, and then in 1936, he was appointed to serve in the church of the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in the village of Bychki, Ryazan region. On December 19, 1937, he was arrested again, accused of anti-Soviet agitation. On December 31, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Priest Arefa Nasonov was shot on January 10, 1938, and buried in an unmarked mass grave.
