New Martyr 20th century

Priest-martyr Demetrius Klepinin

1904 – 1944

Also known as Dimitri Klepinin

An Orthodox priest in Paris who, working beside Mother Maria, gave baptismal certificates to Jews to save them, and was arrested and died in the camp of Buchenwald.

Feast Day

July 20

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Commemorated as

The Holy Priest-Martyr Demetrius (Klepinin) of Paris

Life

Demetrius Klepinin (Dimitri Klepinin) was a Russian Orthodox priest in Paris who, during the German occupation of France, worked alongside the nun Mother Maria Skobtsova at her shelter on the Rue de Lourmel to protect Jews from deportation. He is best known for issuing baptismal certificates to Jews who sought the legal protection such documents could afford under the Nazi racial laws. He was arrested by the Gestapo, deported to the concentration camps, and died there in 1944. He is commemorated on July 20.

Born in Russia in 1904 to an educated Orthodox family, Klepinin left his homeland with his family after the Revolution and settled in Paris by way of Constantinople and Yugoslavia. He studied at the St. Sergius Theological Institute in Paris, from which he graduated in 1929, and spent a period of study at a theological seminary in New York. He married Tamara Baimakova and was ordained to the priesthood in 1937 by Metropolitan Evlogy, the head of the Russian Orthodox parishes in Western Europe.

From 1939 Klepinin served as the priest of the charitable house operated by Mother Maria Skobtsova, a community devoted to sheltering the poor, the homeless, and refugees. After the German occupation and the intensification of persecution against Jews, he began, from 1942, to provide baptismal certificates to Jews who came to the parish, entering their names into the parish registers so that the documents would withstand scrutiny. He understood this work as a direct demand of his Christian calling, and when pressed to abandon it he is recorded as having answered that he could not, because he was a Christian and had to act accordingly.

He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1943 and interrogated, but did not renounce or conceal his convictions. He was deported with Mother Maria's son Yuri to Buchenwald and afterward to the Dora camp. There his health failed, and he died of pneumonia early in 1944; his body was cremated. In 2004 he was glorified as a saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople together with Mother Maria Skobtsova and others who had shared in their work and their death.

Timeline 8 moments Read Hide

1904 Born in Russia Demetrius Klepinin is born into an educated Orthodox family in Russia.
1929 Graduates from St. Sergius He completes his studies at the St. Sergius Theological Institute in Paris.
1937 Ordained to the priesthood He marries Tamara Baimakova and is ordained priest by Metropolitan Evlogy.
1939 Joins Mother Maria's community He is assigned as priest to the shelter operated by Mother Maria Skobtsova in Paris.
1942 Issues baptismal certificates to Jews He begins providing baptismal certificates to Jews seeking protection from deportation.
Feb 1943 Arrested by the Gestapo He is arrested and interrogated but does not renounce his work.
1944 Dies in the camps Deported to Buchenwald and then Dora, he dies of pneumonia and is cremated at Buchenwald.
2004 Glorified as a saint The Ecumenical Patriarchate glorifies him together with Mother Maria and her companions.

Contributions & Legacy

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Ministry with Mother Maria

From 1939 Klepinin was assigned as priest to the community gathered around Mother Maria Skobtsova, centered on the house at 77 Rue de Lourmel in Paris. The community combined the liturgical life of the parish with active charity, offering food and shelter to the destitute and to the many Russian émigrés and other refugees in the city. Klepinin served the services and pastored this irregular and impoverished congregation, which drew the marginal and the displaced rather than the established.

When the occupation authorities began the systematic registration and deportation of Jews, the work of the Rue de Lourmel community took on a new and dangerous character. Beginning in 1942, Jews sought from Klepinin baptismal certificates that might shield them from arrest. He granted these freely, recording the names in the parish registers so that, if the Gestapo checked, the baptisms would appear to be genuine entries in the church's books.

Arrest and Death

In February 1943 the Gestapo discovered a letter requesting certificates and moved against the community. Klepinin was summoned for interrogation, which by witness accounts lasted several hours; he did not attempt to hide what he had done or to disavow his beliefs. According to the tradition recorded in the synaxaria, when an interrogator demanded that he promise to stop helping Jews, he replied that he could say no such thing, because he was a Christian and must act as he must.

He was imprisoned and then, in December 1943, deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, and afterward transferred to the Dora camp, where prisoners were worked in the underground galleries dug for the manufacture of V-2 rockets. Weakened by the conditions and ill with pneumonia, he died early in 1944; his remains were cremated at Buchenwald. Sources differ slightly on the exact date of his death.

Glorification

In January 2004 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople glorified Klepinin as a saint, together with Mother Maria Skobtsova, her son Yuri, and Ilya Fondaminsky, all of whom had been associated with the Rue de Lourmel community and had perished in the Nazi camps. The group is commemorated together on July 20.

Notes

Modern saint; OCA gives few details.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints