In the Baku and Azerbaijani diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, the day of the commemoration of Orthodox Christians, immunely killed during the years of Soviet power, writes Orthodox magazine Thomas.
The day of the commemoration of Orthodox Christians, innocently killed on November 2, when the memory of John’s Sacred House, Presbyter Baku.
This decision was made at the meeting of the diocese clergy, which was held on October 24, 2021 in the Orthodox Religious and Cultural Center of the Baku Diocese chaired by the Archbishop of the Pyatigorsk and Circassian Feofilkt, temporarily administering the Baku and Azerbaijani diocese.
John Baku (real name Ivan Ilyich Ganchev) was the abbot of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baku. With the beginning of persecution of the church was forced to leave Baku and move with his family to his brother, who worked as a notary in Lankaran. March 20, 1933 Father John on false prosecution was arrested.
September 10 “For counter-revolutionary and spy activities” and “intention to illegal care – in Persia from AzSSR” Father John was condemned by the OGPU board and sent for a period of five years. By the decision of the Troika UNKVD on the Karaganda region of October 31, 1937, the priest John Ganthev was sentenced to shooting. The verdict was carried out on November 2, 1937. In 2000, John Bakinsky was ranked sainted.