Presbyter
Saint Ilya was born on July 12, 1884, in the village of Chaplygino, Bronnitsky district of Moscow province, in the family of priest Alexander Nikolaevich Zachataysky. After graduating from the Kolomenskoe Theological School in 1899, he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary, which he completed in 1905. From 1912 until his martyr's death, he served in the Pokrov Church of the village of Kupelitsy in the Vereya district of Moscow region. Here he witnessed the uprising of peasants against the atrocities of the new authority in 1918.
As a clergyman, he was deprived of voting rights and was subjected to heavy taxation. In 1929, he was first sentenced for 'gross evasion of agricultural tax.' On October 1, 1929, the deacon of the church where Father Ilya served asked him for permission to address the people after the liturgy. After Father Ilya's arrest, the deacon and the psalmist were also arrested.
Priest Ilya Zachataysky was arrested on January 7, 1930, and imprisoned in a prison in the city of Vereya. On March 3, 1930, he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment. That same year, Father Ilya's household was subjected to dekulakization. The authorities repeatedly attempted to close the church. In 1935, the bells were removed, and Father Ilya was forbidden to visit the homes of the faithful.
In the late 1930s, the authorities decided to arrest the priest. On November 25, 1937, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Mozhaisk prison. On November 29, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Father Ilya to execution. He was shot on December 9, 1937, at the Butovo firing range near Moscow and buried in an unmarked common grave.
