Archimandrite
Saint Martyr Matfei (Pomerentsev) was born around 1881 in the village of Tolmachevo, Bryansk district, Oryol province. He received his education at the II Oryol Spiritual School and graduated from the Oryol Spiritual Seminary and the Kyiv Theological Academy. Since 1906, he taught at the Oryol Spiritual Seminary and later at other educational institutions. In 1911, he was ordained as a hieromonk, and from December of the same year, he became the head of the church-parish schools at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. In 1917, he was appointed rector of the Perm Spiritual Seminary and elevated to the rank of archimandrite. He participated in the Local Council of 1917-1918, where he dealt with issues of persecution against the Orthodox Church. In August 1918, after addressing the Council, he joined the investigative commission regarding the murder of Metropolitan Vladimir. On August 27, 1918, he was shot by Red Army soldiers along with the delegation of the Council. Local peasants buried the bodies of the martyrs, but the authorities soon exhumed and burned them. Saint Matfei was canonized among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia at the Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000 for public veneration.
