Hieromartyr Emilian Goncharov, Presbyter

Saint Emilian was born on August 5, 1882, in the village of Staro-Poltavka, Saratov province. He graduated from the teacher's seminary in 1904. Since 1914, he served as a psalmist, and in 1921, he was ordained as a deacon and then as a priest. He served in the churches of the Saratov diocese, and in 1932, he transferred to the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Rozhdestveno. In 1937, he was arrested and imprisoned. He was accused of possessing rifle cartridges and participating in counter-revolutionary activities. On November 3, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution. He was shot on November 5, 1937, and buried in an unmarked grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.