New Hieromartyrs Peter Sneznitsky & Michael Tikhonitsky

Martyrdom

Peter Sneznitsky and Michael Tikhonitsky were both killed in 1918, during the first wave of state violence against the clergy that accompanied the Russian Civil War and the early consolidation of Soviet power. They are listed as New Hieromartyrs, the term used in the Orthodox Church for ordained clergy who suffer death for Christ.

Michael Tikhonitsky (1846–1918) served as a priest in the town of Orlov in the Vyatka region. He was the father of the future hierarch Vladimir (Tikhonitsky), later Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox parishes in Western Europe. Following his canonization, Michael Tikhonitsky's relics were placed in the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Orlov.

Commemoration

Peter Sneznitsky and Michael Tikhonitsky are both included among the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, the collective commemoration of those who died in the persecutions of the twentieth century. Each appears by name and rank — presbyter, New Hieromartyr — in the lists of the Russian new martyrs.