Presbyter
On December 11, 1937, the entire clergy of the Moscow Cathedral of the Theophany in Dorogomilovo was arrested, including the cathedral's rector, Archpriest Vasily Yagodin, and Priest Alexander Buratsev.
Saint Martyr Vasily was born on April 11, 1870, in the village of Klyuchi, Keren district, Penza province, in the family of priest Alexander Yagodin. In 1890, he graduated from the Penza Theological Seminary. He married, and his family consisted of his wife, Yulia Yakovlevna, and three daughters. In 1890, Vasily Alexandrovich was appointed as a psalmist and teacher of the church-parish school. In 1891, he was ordained as a priest for the church in the village of Ilmino, Gordishchen district, Penza province. In 1895, Father Vasily was appointed as a military priest in the Chikishlyar fortification in the Transcaucasian region, and in 1904, he became a priest of the 221st Infantry Troitsk-Sergievsky Regiment in Moscow and the dean of the 56th Infantry Division.
In 1911, Father Vasily was appointed rector of the cathedral in the fortress of Svyaborg in Finland, and in the same year, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest by Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow (Bogoyavlensky). In 1918, the community of the church of St. Chariton the Confessor in Moscow appealed to the church authorities with a request to appoint Archpriest Vasily to this church, and the request was granted. In 1921, Archpriest Vasily was awarded the pallium, and in 1923, Patriarch Tikhon awarded him the mitre.
In the spring of 1937, following the arrest of the rector of the Bogoayvlenensky Dorogomilovsky Cathedral in Moscow, Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, Archpriest Vasily was appointed rector of the cathedral and served there until his arrest. During the interrogations, Archpriest Vasily did not confess to any wrongdoing.
On December 20, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced priests Vasily and Alexander to death by shooting. On December 22, 1937, Archpriest Vasily Yagodin and Priest Alexander Buratsev were shot and buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
Saint Martyr Alexander was born on May 30, 1886, in the village of Spasskoye, Moscow district, Moscow province, in the family of priest Sergey Buratsev. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and was ordained as a priest. Until 1929, Father Alexander served in churches in the Moscow region. In 1929, Father Alexander was arrested for failing to meet a tax assigned to him by the village council — to deliver fifteen poods of oats. For this, he was sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Father Alexander appealed the unjust sentence, was acquitted, and released. After that, he moved to Moscow and served in various churches in the city, starting from 1934 in the Bogoayvlenensky Dorogomilovsky Cathedral. When arrested, he did not confess to any wrongdoing.
