Martyr Yuri (Yuri Petrovich Novitsky) was born on November 10, 1882, in the city of Uman, Kiev province. He graduated from the 1st Gymnasium and the Faculty of Law of Kiev University in 1908. Since 1913, he was an associate professor, and later a professor at the Department of Criminal Law of Petrograd University.
After 1917, Yuri Petrovich, being a professor at the Pedagogical Institute of Preschool Education, was the organizer and scientific secretary of the Petrograd Pedagogical Institute of Social Education and Defective Children. He organized the Kostroma Workers' and Peasants' University and was a member of the Council of the Petrograd Theological Institute. From 1920 to 1922, he served as the chairman of the board of the Society of United Petrograd Orthodox Parishes.
Yuri Petrovich was arrested in May 1922. At the trial, he refused to acknowledge his guilt, remaining calm and composed. On July 5, the verdict of the tribunal was announced, according to which the holy martyrs Metropolitan of Petrograd and Ladoga Veniamin, along with Archimandrite Sergey, laymen Yuri Novitsky and Ivan Kovsharov were sentenced to execution by shooting.
On the night of July 31, 1922, they, shorn and dressed in rags, were shot on the outskirts of Petrograd at the Porokhovye station. He was glorified as a new martyr in 1992 at the Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
