Steblin-Kamensky, Ivan Georgievich

• Grandfather - George Pavlovich Steblin-Kamensky, Privy Councilor, Governor of Vilna.
• Father - Georgi Georgievich Steblin-Kamensky , Privy Councilor, was the director of the office of the Ministry of the Sea, the senator for the heraldry department and the judicial department of the Government Senate, and the chairman of the Russian Society of the Law of the Sea.
• Mother - Olga Alexandrovna, daughter of Vice Admiral Alexander Pavlovich Gendra. She died in 1902 .
• Sisters - Olga and Elizabeth.

He graduated from four classes of a gymnasium, the St. Petersburg Marine Corps (1908, was awarded the Admiral Nakhimov Prize). Appointed to the Bogatyr cruiser, spent two years in overseas voyage. He was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for helping those affected by the 1908 earthquake in Sicily and Calabria . Then he was assigned to the 1st Baltic Fleet crew , to the division of test destroyers . Since 1912 - lieutenant. He served as company commander on the cruiser " Admiral Makarov ", taught in the Marine Corps.

Member of the First World War , awarded the orders of St. Stanislav 3rd degree (1914) and St. Anna 3rd degree (1915). In June 1917, he left the fleet for health reasons (during this period, the Baltic Fleet was in a state of collapse, and many officers left it).

In the summer of 1918 he participated in a scientific expedition exploring the Neva shallows, in 1919 - 1921 he was an assistant director of the lighthouses of the Baltic Fleet and at the same time a psalmist of the Petrograd Holy Trinity Church (on Stremyannaya Street )

In 1920, he was ordained a deacon ( celibacy ) to the Holy Trinity Church. He was soon arrested, spent some time in custody. In 1923 he was ordained a priest , elevated to the rank of archpriest and appointed rector of the church. In 1924 he was again arrested on the charge of uniting believers around him, who gathered not only in the temple, but also in apartments, read by akathists , the Holy Scriptures .

In September 1924, he was sentenced to three years in prison by a special meeting of the OGPU collegium , and served his sentence in the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (ELEPHANT), where he remained independent, always went in priestly clothes and attended church services.

From Solovki he wrote to his parishioners:

Let the moral cold still reign in the history of mankind, may the peoples rest in their crazy egoistic desire for material personal well-being — the work of Divine construction is being accomplished; The Sun of Truth steadily warms everything that is called to life; the world is inalienable from the earth, not the world that cannot stand the first bone thrown, the first clash of material interests, but the world that fills the soul of a hungry man when he shares his last piece with a beggar alien to him. This world is invincible because it is a world of love, not agreement. Formerly, the futile desire of the best people to affirm their will to do good with the appearance on the earth of the God of the Word receives abundant gracious help and favor in people, is being realized.

In 1927 he was released from the camp, but he was forbidden to return to Leningrad, and sent to an administrative exile in Voronezh . Since November 1927, he was a priest of the church of the former Intercession of the Virgin's Monastery in Voronezh, and soon became its rector. He quickly gained great authority among the parishioners. His efforts organized a constant fundraising for the Voronezh archbishop Peter (Zverev) and other Solovetsky Christian prisoners. Opponents of the Orthodox Church publicly demanded the arrest of a popular priest.

He was an opponent of the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius , which contained far-reaching concessions to Soviet power. He joined the “ Josephite ” movement, was one of its leaders in the Voronezh diocese , signed a protest appeal of January 9, 1928, Bishop Alexy (Buy) to Metropolitan Sergius. After the arrest of Bishop Alexy, the diocesan deanery of the Voronezh diocese.

On May 19, 1929, Archpriest John was arrested. He was accused of undermining the authority and power of Soviet power. He interrogated with great dignity, pleaded not guilty. Said that

he is loyal to the Soviet regime, but I do not sympathize with measures directed against religion. I consider it incorrect to teach children in schools in an anti-religious direction and the like. Since I do not know any other weapon except the cross, both in the past tense and in the present I find the only right thing to act in peace with the masses. He condemned all oppositions against civil laws. For me there is no doubt that faith in the crucified Christ is invincible, that the apparent triumph of materialism is a temporary phenomenon.

He was sentenced by a special meeting at the college of the OGPU to re-imprisonment in Solovki for a term of three years. In April 1930, he was ordered to be sent to Voronezh prison, where he was taken at the beginning of May of that year. He is accused of participating in the activities of the monarchist counter-revolutionary organization, of “distributing church monarchist leaflets and brochures, and distributing all kinds of anti-Soviet provocative rumors.” He pleaded not guilty, did not slander anyone. However, another priest in the case gave evidence to the authorities.

Sentenced by the OGPU board to be shot, the sentence was carried out on August 2, 1930 in the vicinity of Voronezh.

The Anniversary Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000 ranked Archpriest John Steblin-Kamensky as a new martyr and confessor of Russia . Nine more shepherds and laity shot along with him were counted saints:

• Archimandrite Tikhon (Timofey Ulyanovich Krechkov in the world; 1862-1930) - rector of the Alekseevsky Akatov Monastery .
• Hieromonk George (Pozharov; 1886-1930).
• Hieromonk Kosma (Vyaznikov; 1872-1930);
• Priest Alexander Nikolaevich Arkhangelsky (1874-1930).
• Priest Sergei Dmitrievich Gortinsky (1889-1930).
• Priest George Nikitovich Nikitin (1870-1930).
• Priest Fyodor Mikhailovich Yakovlev (1897-1930).
• Pyotr Mikhailovich Vyaznikov (1876-1930) - the peasant sole-man.
• Euphemius (Efim) Nikiforovich Grebenshchikov (1904-1930) - a peasant sole-man.

• Life and letters
• Biography
• Biography
• John (Steblin-Kamensky). Letters from the camp 1925-1927 // Thomas: magazine. - 2009. - No. 11 (79). - S. XII — XV.