Nestor Panin, Presbyter

Nestor Prokofyevich Panin was born in 1881 in the city of Semipalatinsk. After graduating from the Tomsk Theological Seminary, he was ordained to the Semipalatinsk Resurrection Cathedral and earned the rank of protopresbyter. On August 28, 1937, during the feast of the Dormition, Father Nestor was arrested by the NKVD on charges of 'membership in a counter-revolutionary espionage organization of clergymen.' He did not acknowledge his guilt and refused to provide witness testimony. On November 19, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution, and at two o'clock in the night on November 22, Father Nestor was shot. In 2000, he was glorified in the ranks of saints of the Russian Orthodox Church as the holy martyr protopresbyter Nestor.