Job, Bishop And Hieromartyr Of Ufa

Bishop Job, in the world James Ivanovich (according to another source, Ioann Ioannovich) Grechishkin, was born in 1895 in Rostov province in a Cossack family. From 1909 to 1913 he was a novice of Elder Iosper in Svanetia. In 1913 he was tonsured by Archbishop Andrew of Ufa. In 1920 (according to another source, 1913) he was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in the Kuban diocese. He struggled well against the renovationists, and in 1924 (according to another source, 1923) was brought to trial in Maikop and exiled for three years to Central Asia. He was consecrated to the episcopate secretly in Central Asia by Archbishop Andrew of Ufa and others in about 1926 (according to another source, 1924). He arrived in Ufa in 1927 and served in the church of the Exaltation of the Cross. He ordained many priests, mainly hieromonks, who served the flock of the Catacomb Church in various corners of Russia. According to one (dubious) source, he was a participant in the "Nomadic Council" of the Catacomb Church in 1928, and was a member of the Working Group. In 1930 he was arrested in Ufa. He perished in the camps. According to one source, he was arrested in the Kuban in 1935 for "counter-revolutionary activity", and shot in prison in Rostov-on-Don in the same year. However, he may have survived to the 1940s.

(Sources: Russkoye Vozrozhdeniye, N 20, 1982 (IV), pp. 134-135; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Katakombnaya Tserkov': Kochuyushchij Sobor 1928 g.", Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 3 (7), 1997; "Episkopat Istinno-Pravoslavnoj Katakombnoj Tserkvi 1922-1997g.", Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 4(8), 1997, pp. 12-13; Pravoslavnaya Rus', N 14 (1587), July 15/28, 1997, p. 6; I.I. Osipova, "Skvoz' Ogn' Muchenij i Vody Slyoz", Moscow: Serebryanniye Niti, 1998, pp. 257-258)