Presbyter
Hieromartyr Pavel was born on December 6, 1877, in the village of Tishkovo, Moscow Province, into the family of the priest Fyodor Konstantinovich Smirnov. He graduated from the Pererva Theological School and the Moscow Theological Seminary. Choosing the path of a married priest, Pavel Fyodorovich married the maiden Klavdia; later, the couple had four children.
In 1902 Pavel Fyodorovich was ordained a priest and assigned to the Church of the Prophet Elijah, where the greater part of his pastoral ministry took place. In 1914 a building for a parish school was consecrated in the village; it had been built through the efforts of the priest with funds provided by the school’s benefactor, Vargin. For his long and blameless service, Father Pavel was awarded a pectoral cross in 1921, elevated to the rank of archpriest in 1924, and in 1927 was awarded a jeweled cross.
In 1929 local militant atheists forbade the priest to serve prayer services at Pascha in the villages belonging to the parish. Nevertheless, despite threats, he carried out the Paschal processions. Father Pavel was arrested and sentenced to six months of forced labor, which he served in the city of Kashira. He was not deprived of freedom there and did not live in prison; he was only obliged to work where directed, and on nonworking days he always returned home to his village. There were no services in the church, and he, being under sentence of forced labor, was not permitted to serve.
In 1930 Father Pavel’s home was confiscated as part of dekulakization, and his property was looted. Pascha of 1930 was approaching. On April 15, about seventy villagers gathered at the village council and demanded that the church be opened, that the priest’s family property be returned, and that those forcibly entered into the collective farm be removed from the lists. On the same day, peasants collected signatures for a petition to reopen the church and annul the dekulakization order. In the end, the villagers’ efforts were successful: the order was rescinded, permission was granted to open the church, and when Father Pavel returned to the village, divine services resumed.
However, in August 1930 he and his wife were arrested on false charges of anti-Soviet agitation. They were sentenced to three years of exile in Kazakhstan. After returning, Father Pavel was appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Karacharovo.
In 1937 he was arrested again and imprisoned. Witnesses testified against him, accusing him of anti-Soviet agitation. On December 7, 1937, an NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment. He died in custody on March 1, 1938, and was buried in an unknown grave in the camp cemetery.
