Deacon
Saint Martyr Paul was born in 1878 in Moscow into the family of a deacon, Pavel Shirokogorov. In 1900, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and served as a teacher in Moscow. In 1908, he was appointed as a psalmist in one of the Moscow churches, and in 1918, he was ordained as a deacon and served until his arrest in the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Moscow. In 1935, he settled in the village of Dedenovo in the Dmitrov district, where his sister lived with her family, while he traveled to Moscow to serve.
Deacon Paul was arrested on the night of November 26-27, 1937, imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow, and immediately interrogated. The investigator, having learned how long the deacon had served the Holy Church, stated:
— You are conducting anti-Soviet agitation among the population; provide testimony on this matter.
Deacon Paul replied:
— I am not conducting anti-Soviet agitation among the population.
The next day, the on-duty witnesses were interrogated, and the investigation was concluded. On December 3, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Deacon Paul to ten years of imprisonment in a correctional labor camp. Deacon Paul Shirokogorov died in custody on March 6, 1938, and was buried in an unmarked grave.
