Saint Peter of Krutitsy

Peter of Krutitsy (Священному́ченик Пётр Крути́цкий, born Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky, Пётр Фёдорович Поля́нский; July 10, 1862 (June 28 O.S.) – October 10, 1937 (September 27 O. S.), was a Russian Orthodox bishop and martyr. From April 12 till December 9, 1925 he was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving as the patriarchal locum tenens. Despite his imprisonment, he remained technically locum tenens until his death in 1937. He is considered as a saint hieromartyr by the Russian Orthodox Church. Peter was born in the village of Storozhevoye of the Korotoyaksky Uyezd of the Voronezh Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Ostrogozhsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia) to the family of a parish priest. In 1875, he entered the Kostroma Theological College, from which he graduated in 1879 and entered the Voronezh Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1885 with the first degree. In 1892 he was graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy. He remained in the academy in the position of Assistant Dean of Students ("Inspector") and in 1897 he defended his Master's thesis. Upon graduation, Polyansky did not seek an ordained ministry, but rather for the most of his life, he served as a layman in various official ecclesiastical establishments. From 1906 to 1918, Polyansky worked at the Education Committee of the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, by 1915 becoming Secretary, with the rank of "Active State Councillor" (Действительный статский советник), Class IV on the Russian Table of Ranks, equivalent to the rank of Major General in the Imperial Russian Army), serving as Inspector of all theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church. His duties required him to travel extensively, and during this time, he developed a close acquaintance with the future Patriarchs Tikhon (Bellavin) and Sergius (Stragorodsky).