He was born in 1898 in the village of Konstantinovka, Berdyansk district, Taurida province, in a pious peasant family. At the age of nine, he began his studies at a church-parish school and then continued at the school of the Grigoriev-Bizyukov Monastery. In 1914, he became a singer in the monastery choir in Genichesk.
In 1917, he was drafted into the army and was captured on the Romanian front. After escaping from the concentration camp 'Lamsdorf', he returned home. He became a psalmist in the church and married an orphan named Kharitina, with whom he had a daughter, Raisa.
In 1923, inspired by the ideals of Christian virtue, he left his family and went to Moscow. There, while speaking at the funeral of Archdeacon Konstantin Rozov, he was arrested for an anti-government speech.
In the Solovetsky camp, where he was sent for three years, he fell ill with scurvy. After his release, he was exiled to Kazakhstan, where he lived with his family, teaching his daughter the Law of God. In 1932, he returned to his homeland, where he resumed church life, helping to open a church.
In 1934, after the death of his father, he was sentenced to five years for not sowing grain. After his release, he continued to face persecution, and in 1937 he was arrested in Simferopol for his religious beliefs.
In 1941, the Special Council under the NKVD sentenced him to five years of imprisonment in Norilsk. Correspondence with his relatives ceased, and in 1945 they learned of his death from starvation.
He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in August 2000 for public veneration.
