On October 17 (October 4 on the Julian Calendar) we commemorate Saint St. Dimitri Voznesensky, hieromartyr under the Communist yoke, who reposed in the Lord in 1918.
Dmitri Pavlovich Voznesensky was born in 1855 in the village of Nikolo-Zamoshye. In 1877, he completed a course at the Yaroslavl Theological Seminary and was appointed a full-time psalm-reader in his native church, later elevated to the rank of deacon.
In 1910, he became a priest. The revolution and civil war that had begun did not bypass the village of Nikolo-Zamoshye. On October 16, 1918, an uprising against Soviet power broke out on the territory of the Nikolo-Zamoshensky parish. At the request of the rebels, a religious procession and a prayer service were held, after which Father Dmitry delivered a sermon denouncing the godless plans of the Bolsheviks.
The next day, a punitive detachment arrived and dispersed the rebels. The ringing of the bells for the morning service was taken by the punitive forces as a signal for resistance. During the liturgy, a Red Guard tried to shoot Father Dimitri through the open Royal Doors, but the rifle failed. Then the soldiers came to the priest's home after the service, arrested him and, with mockery, escorted him to the Shestikhino railway station, where he was shot on the night of October 17-18, 1918.
Priest Dimitri was canonized by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.