Saint Paulin

Paulin, born Pyotr Kroshechkin (December 7/19, 1879, in the Penza Governorate – November 3, 1937, in Kemerovo), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and a new martyr. Born into a peasant family, he desired to become a priest from a young age. In 1904, he became a novice at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow, where he took monastic vows and received the name Paulin. Shortly thereafter, he was ordained a hieromonk after completing an accelerated course at the Moscow Theological Seminary. He earned a degree from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1916. In 1920, he became the superior of his monastery with the rank of archimandrite, and a year later, he was appointed Bishop of Rylsk. In 1927, he was transferred to the See of Perm, but was forced to leave the city due to his active pastoral work. He was then appointed Bishop of Kaluga. In 1933, he was transferred once again to the See of Mogilev, where he was imprisoned on false charges on October 3, 1935. He was subsequently held in a prison in Minsk and a camp in Kemerovo. He was sentenced to death by an NKVD troika and executed by firing squad on November 3, 1937. He was fully rehabilitated in 1969 and canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.