New Hieromartyr Elias (Gromoglasov) of Tver

Born in 1869, the New Martyr Elias Gromoglasov was a priest of the Diocese of Tver, Russia, during the early 1900s. He was well educated in canon law, theology and other disciplines, had taught for many years, and had authored numerous pieces on a variety of topics ranging from canon law to the Old Believer Schism. In the early 1920s he was arrested in Moscow due to his opposition to the confiscation of Church property by the Soviet regime, but was soon released. In 1925 he was again arrested and sentenced to three years of exile in Surgut, Siberia. Deprived of the right to reside in Moscow after his release, he relocated to Tver. On December 4, 1937, he was again arrested with his coworker, Saint Alexis Benemanskii, with whom he was martyred on the following day. He was canonized by the Diocese of Tver in 1999 and was numbered among those glorified as new martyrs and confessors of the Soviet Yoke by the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.