Presbyter
In the village of Mstera in the Vladimir province, a male Epiphany Monastery was established in the second half of the 17th century. In 1722, the practice of icon painting began here, brought by the Moscow icon painter A. Alekseev. In 1844, the lands of Mstera passed into the possession of Count Panin, and the Mstera icon painters gained wide recognition, participating in the restoration of churches and monasteries.
In 1861, after the abolition of serfdom, the people of Mstera decided to buy back their lands from the count, which they successfully accomplished after 25 years. The workshops in Mstera were family-run, among them was the family of Borozdins, founded by Pyotr Kuzmich Borozdin, in which his children worked. In 1878, Ivan Borozdin was born, who began to engage in icon painting from early childhood.
Ivan graduated from the Mstera School of Icon Painting in 1894, after which he continued his studies at the Moscow Theological School. In 1905, he married Irina, the daughter of a well-known priest. In 1921, he was ordained as a deacon and then served in the church of All Saints of the Old Believer Monastery until its closure.
In 1923, he was assigned to the church of the Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in Moscow, where he served under the guidance of well-known superiors. In 1930, the church was closed and destroyed, which greatly affected Father Ioann, who was then appointed the rector of the Old Believer Church of Saint Nicholas at the Rogozhskoye Cemetery.
In the conditions of persecution against the Church, Father Ioann lived at the church to protect it from destruction. In December 1931, he was arrested and imprisoned in Butyrka prison. The investigation accused him of anti-Soviet sentiments and spreading rumors about the persecution of religion. On September 27, 1937, he was executed and buried in an unmarked grave at the Butovo firing range.
He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in August 2000 for public veneration.
