The Diveyevo monastery celebrates the patronal feast on the day of remembrance of Hieromartyr Mikhail Gusev. One of the side chapels of the Kazan Cathedral was consecrated to two brothers, the Hieromartyrs Mikhail and Yakov Gusev. The services held there included the Vigil, the Divine Liturgy, and the paraklesis with the blessing of water prayer service.

Hieromartyr Mikhail Gusev was born on October 25, 1890, into the family of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery’s priest, Fr. John Gusev. Upon completion of the seminary course, he served at the Diveyevo monastery. According to those who personally knew him, he was a kind-hearted and fair-minded priest loved and respected by his flock.

On August 31, 1937, at the age of 47, he was arrested. On the eve of his arrest, father Mikhail was summoned to NKVD twice and received an offer to defrock himself, which he turned down. He left a note to his wife: “Neither cry nor grumble for the time is near. We lived to see the fulfillment of the Savior’s words.”

During the investigation, Father Mikhail was expected to confess his guilt and presented with the evidence: a host of “witness accounts.” All of the prosecutor’s attempts were left futile as the priest held on stoically and categorically denied charges saying: “I have nothing to confess.”

Father Mikhail was executed November 7/20, 1937, on the eve of his Name Day, the feast of the Synaxis of Archangel Michael and Other Bodiless Powers.

Fr. Mikhail’s family didn’t know about his fate for a long time. In 1956, a letter arrived notifying that their father died from dystrophy in 1943. Many years have passed until Maria, his daughter, found out that her dad, Rev. Fr. Mikhail Gusev, remained faithful to God and suffered the martyr’s death.

In 2001, priest Mikhail Gusev was added to the Synaxis of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.