Presbyter
Saint Vladimir was born on 2 July 1885 in the village of Dunitsy, in the Igumensky District of the Minsk region, into the family of the priest Hilarion Pasternatsky. After graduating from the theological seminary in 1908, he married Natalia, the daughter of the priest Theophanes Sosinovsky.
Together they had eight children. He was ordained to the priesthood and assigned to the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the village of Pesochnoe, where he served until 1932. During the 1920s, he was appointed rector and elevated to the rank of protopresbyter. In 1931, the authorities imposed an exorbitant tax on his family, making it impossible for them to pay the required amount. As a result, all of the priest’s livestock was confiscated. In 1932, Father Vladimir was transferred to the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in the town of Kopyl.
In 1933, all the churches in the surrounding area were closed and their clergy was arrested. The Church of the Resurrection, however, remained the only church left open. Father Vladimir traveled daily throughout the region, helping the faithful, baptizing newborns, and conducting funeral services. In March 1936, he was arrested on charges of abusing administrative authority. On 24 March 1936, he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and sent to a forced labor camp in the Gomel region.
His wife was left alone with three minor children and no means of support. In 1936, she moved with the children to the town of Roslavl. In December 1937, Father Vladimir was released from imprisonment. However, only one day later he was arrested again on charges of counter-revolutionary propaganda.
On 5 January 1938, an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Protopresbyter Vladimir Pasternatsky was executed on 21 January 1938 and buried in a common, unmarked grave.
In 1958, Natalia, striving to preserve her husband's memory, appealed to the authorities and requested the restoration of his good name. As she wrote in her petition: “He was neither a thief, nor a troublemaker, nor a murderer, nor an enemy of the people, but a preacher of the truth, of peace, and love among men.”
