Hieromonk
Saint Pafnutiy was born in 1866 in the village of Pobedy, Orlov Province, to a peasant family of Fyodor Kostin. He was named Boris at baptism. He received his initial education in a rural school. At the age of 34, on August 5, 1900, he was tonsured into monasticism with the name Pafnutiy. On August 23, 1904, he was ordained as a hierodeacon, and on August 8, 1910, as a hieromonk.
On June 26, 1914, Hieromonk Pafnutiy was assigned as a clergyman to the Administration of the 8th Brigade of the State Militia of the Moscow Military District. After World War I, he returned to the monastery and served there until its closure in 1923. After being expelled from the monastery, he settled in the village of Sosenka in the Kaluga region and performed services at the request of the peasants.
In 1937, he visited his homeland, but upon learning of surveillance, he returned to Sosenka. There he fell seriously ill and was arrested on December 13, 1937, and placed in a pre-trial detention cell at the Kozelsk District Department of the NKVD. During this time, other clergymen and nuns were also arrested, accused of counter-revolutionary activities.
The investigation interrogated Father Pafnutiy, but he did not confess to any wrongdoing. On December 16, 1937, an indictment was drawn up, and the case was sent for consideration by the extrajudicial troika. On January 5, 1938, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Hieromonk Pafnutiy was executed at dawn on January 19, 1938, and buried in a common grave without a name.
