Presbyter
Ignatius Stepanovich Teslin was born in 1873 in the village of Studenets, Syzran district of the Simbirsk province. He came from a peasant family and ran a grocery store. He graduated from the Theological Seminary and was ordained as a priest in 1916. In 1930, he was arrested by the OGPU in Syzran, and after his release, he moved to Moscow. On December 15, 1934, he was arrested again on charges of sympathizing with the assassination of S. M. Kirov. He was held in Butyrka prison and did not admit his guilt. On February 10, 1935, by a special council of the NKVD, he was sentenced to exile in Kazakhstan for 3 years on charges of 'counter-revolutionary activity.' He lived in the village of Maiskoye, Besskaragay district of Pavlodar region and worked at the Maiskoye mine. On November 25, 1937, he was arrested along with Archimandrite Gennady on charges of 'conducting counter-revolutionary work together with other servants of the religious cult.' On December 1, 1937, by the Special Troika of the U.N.K.V.D., he was sentenced to execution and was executed the following day. He was buried in an unmarked grave. He was glorified by the Archpastoral Jubilee Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000.
