Presbyter
Saint John was born on June 2, 1869, in the village of Zakharovo, Klin district, Moscow province. In 1890, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and became a teacher in church-parish schools. On March 2, 1892, he was ordained a priest and served in various parishes of the Moscow diocese. In 1934, he was appointed the rector of the Assumption Church in the village of Uspenskoe, Noginsk district. The church had been closed in 1930 but was returned to the Orthodox community in July of that same year. Later, he was transferred to the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in the village of Nesterovo, where he faced persecution from the Soviet authorities.
On February 10, 1938, he was arrested and imprisoned in Taganka prison. The investigation accused him of anti-Soviet agitation, but he denied all charges. On February 19, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Priest John Parusnikov was shot on March 7, 1938, and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo shooting range near Moscow.
