Presbyter
Saint Martyr Peter was born in 1871 in the village of Podlesnaya Sloboda, Ryazan Province, in the family of a psalmist, Timothy Solovyov. After graduating from the Ryazan Theological Seminary, he married Alexandra, the daughter of priest Stephen Kedrov. In 1896, he was ordained as a priest and served in the church in the village of Astankino, where he became the rector and was elevated to the rank of protodeacon.
Priest Peter raised his children in love for the church and rural labor. In 1937, persecutions against the Russian Orthodox Church began. On September 2, 1937, he refused to sign a state loan, stating that the Soviet government was persecuting clergymen. On September 8, 1937, he was arrested by the NKVD during the celebration of his granddaughter's name day.
During the investigation, the priest courageously defended his beliefs, denying all accusations of counter-revolutionary activity. On October 10, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Protodeacon Peter Solovyov was shot on October 13, 1937, and buried in an anonymous mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
