Presbyter
Saint Martyr Pavel was born on August 24, 1891, in the village of Chetyre Bugra in the Astrakhan province, into the family of priest Georgy Ansimonov. In 1906, he graduated from the Astrakhan Ecclesiastical School, and in 1911 – from the Astrakhan Theological Seminary. In 1912, he married Maria, the daughter of priest Vyacheslav Sollertinsky, and was ordained as a priest. In 1918, he graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1921, he was invited to serve in the Assumption Church in the stanitsa of Ladzhenskaya in Kuban, where his family experienced much hardship due to famine. In 1923, the church was seized by the Renovationists, and he left the stanitsa. From 1924, he served as a choir director in the Vvedensky Church in Cherkizovo, and in 1925, he became a priest in the Church of the Presentation on Vvedenskaya Square in Moscow. In 1929, the church was looted and closed. In 1930, he served in the Church of St. Nicholas in Pokrovsk, where he was arrested on June 23, 1930, on charges of organizing a sisterhood. After his release on August 12, 1930, he returned to ministry and was elevated to the rank of protodeacon. On the night of December 28 to 29, 1930, he was arrested again and placed in Butyrka prison. He was released on January 18, 1931, and continued his ministry. In 1931, the Church of St. Nicholas was closed and destroyed. From 1932 to 1935, he served in the Church of the Resurrection at the Semyonovsky Cemetery, then in the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Izmailovo. In 1937, he was arrested and accused of anti-Soviet activities. On November 19, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Priest Pavel Ansimonov was shot on November 21, 1937, and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
