Presbyter
Saint Theodore was born on November 12, 1867, in the village of Vezgum, Belozerskaya volost, Novgorod province, in the family of priest Evgeny Belyaev. In 1889, he graduated from the Olonets Theological Seminary and was ordained as a priest. He served in the Trinity Church of the village of Uloma, Cherepovets district. In 1919, he was arrested by the Cherepovets Cheka but was soon released.
In March 1922, the parishioners learned about the impending confiscation of church property. The parishioners, mostly women, created a commission to protect the church. On March 26, it was decided at a meeting to resist the confiscation of valuables. Olga Vasilievna Levina was elected chairperson of the meeting.
On March 28, a commission arrived in Uloma, and a crowd of two thousand people, mostly women, gathered at the executive committee, demanding not to hand over the church items. Priest Theodore, returning from a trip, was called to the people but refused to calm them, saying that it would not be possible, as the believers would not listen to him.
The authorities arrested Theodore, Olga Levina, and members of the church council. During the interrogations, the priest replied that handing over church property was a matter for the believers. On May 17, 1922, the Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced him to four years of imprisonment.
After his release, Theodore served in the same village, but in 1931 he was arrested for failing to meet grain procurement quotas and was sentenced to five years of exile. After returning from exile in 1933, he began serving in the Makaryevsky Church.
On March 17, 1937, the authorities closed the church, and Theodore began to seek its reopening. On October 8, 1937, he was arrested and shot on November 3, 1937. He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for universal veneration.
