On September 22 (September 9 on the Julian Calendar) we commemorate Saint Gregory Gariaev, Priest, New Martyr of the Communist Yoke, who reposed in the Lord in 1918.
Hieromartyr Gregory Simeonovich Gariaev was born on January 29, 1878 in the village of Pyanteg, Cherdyn district, into the family of Father Simeon Evangelovich Gariaev (the rector of the Church of the Prophet Elijah), and his wife Anfisa Varlaamovna.
In 1871, the first school for peasant children in the village opened in the house of Father Simeon, which was later transformed into a public school. Father Symeon's son Gregory received his primary education in this school.
In 1900, he graduated from the Perm Theological Seminary and on June 9 of the same year, Bishop Peter (Losev) of Perm and Solikamsk ordained him as a Reader and appointed him psalm-reader of the Church of the Prophet Elijah in the village of Nikulino, Perm district.
In August 1900, in the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Perm, the same Bishop ordained him to the rank of deacon, and on September 10, to the rank of priest at the Peter and Paul Church in the village of Kosmo-Damianskoye, Solikamsk district.
On December 11, 1903, at the request of parishioners and by his own petition, Father Gregory was transferred to the Spasskaya Church (Church of the Savior) in the city of Solikamsk.
While serving as a parish priest in a large, single-staff parish, Father Gregory carried out various obediences with commendable zeal:
From February 24, 1904: permanent member of the Solikamsk district branch of the Diocesan School Council.
In 1904-1906: member of the Audit Committee for the verification of the economic report of the Board of the Solikamsk Theological School.
For about two years (from February 1905 to June 4, 1907) Father Gregory was the clerk of the Solikamsk District Department of the Diocesan School Council.
From March 1905: member of the school commission of the Solikamsk district branch of the Diocesan School Council.
From September 30, 1905 to September 1906, he was a religious teacher at the Ust-Usolsk Zemstvo School and a responsible observer for the teaching of the Law of God at the Ust-Usolsk Elementary School.
By election of the District School Congress of Fathers Deputies in 1906, from January 12, 1907 to September 1, 1908: member of the Board of the Solikamsk Theological School from the clergy.
From 1909 to 1911: member of the Audit Committee for the verification of the economic report of the Board of the Solikamsk Theological School.
From 1912 to 1916: member of the Board of the Solikamsk Theological School, elected by the Diocesan Congress of the Clergy in 1912 with the approval of His Grace for a three-year term.
From 1908 to 1910: member of the Deanery Council for the election of the District Congress of the clergy of the 1st deanery district of Solikamsk district for a three-year term.
From February 14, 1910 to May 31, 1910, he temporarily served as the dean of the 1st district of Solikamsk district, based on the report of the Consistory.
From 1911 to 1912: candidate for membership in the Deanery Council for the election of the District Congress of the clergy of the 1st Deanery District of Solikamsk County.
From November 1911 to December 31, 1913: member of the Audit Committee for the audit of the monetary part of the deanery.
From 1912 to 1914: candidate for member of the Deanery Council, elected by the same Congress of Clergy for a three-year term.
In 1913: candidate for deputy at the Diocesan Congress of Clergy for 1913, elected by the same Congress of Clergy;
From 1912 to 1914: candidate for investigator by election of the District Congress of the Clergy.
From 1914 to 1916: member of the Deanery Council and an observer of the teaching of the Law of God in the primary schools of the Ministry of Public Education located in the Deanery area with the approval of His Grace for three years.
From July 24, 1906: religious teacher at the Solikamsk 2-grade boys' school.
From February 24, 1904: permanent member of the Solikamsk district branch of the Diocesan School Council.
From March 1905: member of the school commission of the same Department.
From March 1, 1911: Treasurer of the Solikamsk District Department.
From 1916: by election of the Diocesan Congress of Clergy and Church Wardens, he was a member of the Audit Commission for the Solikamsk Theological School for three years.
On March 15, 1904, for excellent and diligent service in the spiritual department, Bishop John (Alekseev) of Perm and Solikamsk awarded him a nabedrennik.
On April 16, 1907, for his services to the spiritual department and school affairs, Bishop Nikanor (Nadezhdin) of Perm and Solikamsk awarded him a skufia.
On May 6, 1915, for his excellent and diligent service in the spiritual department, he was awarded a kamilavka.
In 1918, during the mass repressions in the Perm province, Father Gregory was arrested and taken to the city of Perm. There, on September 8 of that year, on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was shot by the Red Army.
On October 9, 1918, the newspaper of the Perm Provincial Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Army Deputies, Izvestia, published a list of people shot "in response to the assassination attempt on members of the Extraordinary Commission." On this list, number 21 was "Gorlyaev [Garyaev] Semyon Grigorievich, a priest and member of the Black Hundreds."
In the materials of the Preliminary Investigation of the Judicial Investigator of the Perm District Court for the most important cases "on the murder of a number of persons of the clergy by decree of the former Extraordinary Commission," in the testimony of Pavel Stepanovich Bogoslovsky there is evidence that the execution of priest Gariaev, like the execution of Archpriest Alexander Shklyaev, occurred on the 5th verst (a verst is 1.1 km) along the Siberian Highway.
After the occupation of Perm by the White Army, on May 8, 1919, along the Siberian Highway, 4 miles from the city of Perm, eight corpses were dug out of the ground at a sewage dump: seven of them were clergy and one was secular. These corpses were transported to the Perm City Anatomical Chamber for identification by relatives and friends. The body of priest Gregory Gariaev was identified by his relatives.
The funeral service for the murdered: Archpriest Alexei Stabnikov, Archpriest Alexander Shklyaev, Priest Konstantin Shirokinsky and Priest Gregory Gariaev was held on May 13 by a council of clergy headed by the temporary administrator of the Perm and Kungur Diocese, Bishop Boris (Shipulin). They were buried in the Bishop's Cemetery near the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral.
Father Gregory's grandson, Gennady Vasilyevich Denisov, testifies:
"Father Gregory was buried in a mass grave. When the city was taken by the White Army, the burial site containing the remains of the executed priests was opened. My grandfather was identified by his brother by the embroidered monograms on his clothes - G.G.S. - since his face was unrecognizable from the beatings. After identification, my grandfather's body was buried in the cemetery near the Cathedral of the city of Perm. The authorities subsequently placed a zoo there. At one time, a cage with a camel stood over my grandfather's grave, located near the wall of the zoo."
There were eight children in the family of priest Gregory Garyaev. During his arrest, Father Gregory managed to instruct his wife, Vera Vasilievna, to keep the family together. In 1919, together with the retreating White Army, the family went to the city of Kurgan. In Kungur, Matushka Vera changed the children's birth certificates: she left the same surnames and first names, but wrote down a different place of birth. The family lived in fear, hiding from persecution. Later, Vera Vasilievna Garyaeva moved to the village of Torgovishche in the Suksunsky District, where she worked as a teacher, and later as a school principal.
At the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, priest Gregory Gariaev was glorified as a New Martyr and Confessor of Russia.
