Monk Victor (Matveyevich Matveev) was born on October 11, 1871 in the village of Borovichi, Novgorod province into the family of a soldier. In his youth he was healed of an incurable disease by St. John of Kronstadt, who blessed him to live the life of a wanderer, living on bread, sugar and tea.
He came to Alma-Ata before the revolution. A fool-for-Christ, he was a great man of prayer, ceaselessly crying out the Jesus Prayer from the depths of his heart. Alexandra Nastenka Nagibina recalled seeing him praying about 1.5 meters above the earth with his arms outstretched.
He lived with Hieromonk Pachomius and Schema-Monk Tikhon on the Gorelnik mountain in the Medeo region. When Fr. Pachomius left his cell, Fr. Victor remained. As before he visited the nuns in the Nikolsky church. However, after the arrest of Priest Alexander Skalsky and Priest Stefan Ponomarev on December 10, 1931, he no longer went to the church.
Then A. Nagibina and Nun Mariamna would go to him on Gorelnik mountain. From the beginning of the 1930s to his arrest he lived in Aksai gorge. On September 2, 1935 he was arrested at night in the mountains. Alexandra Nagibina was arrested at the same time. Fr. Pachomius and the other monks were arrested a little later in the town.
On January 28, 1936 he was convicted of being “the leader of the Alma-Ata part of the counter-revolutionary group of church-people”, and in accordance with articles 58-10 and 58-11 was sentenced to five years’ exile in Kazakhstan.
He did not plead guilty to counter-revolutionary activities, but conformed that he attended secret divine services held in the village of Orlovka by the exiled priest Vladimir Preobrazhensky in the presence of 10 to 15 believers. He sought to obtain permission from the NKVD to live in the mountains.
To the investigator's question: "What goals did you pursue in your desire to go into the mountains and settle there as your residence?" - he replied: "According to my religious beliefs, I have been wandering around different regions and monasteries all of my life. In 1906 I settled in the mountains of Alma-Ata and lived there hopelessly until 1935. When I was sent to the village of Orlovka, I also wanted to go to the mountains and live in a cave. My goal is to get away from all worldly things and live alone, as the monks lived in ancient times."
From prison in Alma-Ata Priest Victor was taken to Karaganda, and from there, in 1936, to Kzyl-Orda. He was in exile in Orlovka settlement, Chayanovsky region, South Kazakhstan. In December, 1937 he was arrested again, and on December 30 was convicted of being “a participant in a counter-revolutionary organization of church-people”, of “systematic counter-revolutionary activity”, of “wide links with clergy and believers for counter-revolutionary ends” and of “taking measures to build cells in the mountains”.
He was sentenced to death in “The Case of the Counter-Revolutionary Organization of Church-people of Chayanovksy region, South Kazakhstan province, 1937”. Priests John Mironovsky and Vladimir Preobrazhensky were also indicted with him. The indictment claimed that this group of church-people were led by the Catacomb hierarchs Joseph of Petrograd, Cyril of Kazan and Eugene of Rostov. On December 31, at 24.00, Monk Victor was shot with Frs. John and Vladimir. (According to another version, in 1936, on the way from Alma-Ata to Karaganda, Priest Victor was thrown out of an airplane.)