Presbyter
Saint Martyr Peter (Peter Nikitovich Tokarev) was born in 1881 in a merchant family in the Tula province. He graduated from the theological seminary and the Demidov Law Lyceum, holding a degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences. In 1910, he was ordained as a priest by Archbishop Tikhon of Yaroslavl and Rostov. He served in the Transfiguration prison church in the town of Lyubim, and then in the Epiphany Cathedral. Since 1919, he was in Yaroslavl.
Father Peter was endowed with a remarkable gift of speech. Listening to his sermons on repentance and maintaining fidelity to Christ and His Church, the parishioners wept. Father Peter was arrested twice, in 1923 and 1930, for “conducting anti-Soviet agitation, attempting to create a counter-revolutionary organization, and assisting exiled clergymen.” In 1937, when Father Peter was serving in the George Church in the village of Obnorskoye in the Lyubim district, he was arrested for the third time. At the only interrogation, the priest did not admit guilt in anti-state activities. On August 19, 1937, he was sentenced to death by shooting, and on the same day, he accepted a martyr's death. He was canonized among the ranks of the holy martyrs in 2000.
