He was born on December 15, 1872, in town of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod Governorate (now Vologda Oblast, Russia), in family of Semyon Kirillovich Petrovykh, who owned a bakery, and Evdokia Ivanovna, née Gankovskaya, who was involved in housework and raising children.

[4] On July 11, 1899, Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Moscow and Kolomna approved it "with granting him the right to teach at the seminary and not to hold a new oral test when seeking a master degree.

Ivan recorded his impressions of visiting the places of earthly life and the exploits of Jesus Christ in the form of essays, which were later published in the journal "Soulful Reading" [ru].

In October 1899, the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy approved the program of classes for the study of the last period of Biblical history and the intention to rework his candidate thesis into master one.

On September 4, 1900, at the meeting of the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy, Ivan Petrovykh gave two trial lectures on the topics: "Rome and Jerusalem (on the characteristics and history of the period of Roman rule)" and "Samuel and Saul in their mutual relations".

For his zealous service in the Intercession Academic Church, a few months after his ordination, Hieromonk Joseph, at the request of the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Arsenius, was awarded a nabedrennik.

[14] At the end of the debate, the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy unanimously recognized the defense as sufficient and decided to apply for the approval of the applicant in the academic degree of Master of Divinity.

By the decree of the Most Holy Synod of June 30, 1906, Archimandrite Joseph was appointed rector of the St. Onuphrius Monastery in Jabłeczna, Siedlce Governorate at Kingdom of Poland, with his dismissal from the educational service.

[22] It was a far western outskirts of the Russian Empire, where a small Eastern Orthodox population was surrounded by hostile Catholics and constantly experienced strong pressure and harassment from them.

Soon Archimandrite Joseph began the repair and reconstruction of the church in the Jabłeczna monastery and already in the spring of 1907 noted in a letter that "everything was done as well as possible — good, spacious, bright, I would not wish for better, only if it would be closer to Russia."

"[26] Archimandrite Joseph sometimes served in the St. Sophia Cathedral, took part in religious and moral readings, which were held on Sundays in the hall of the Novgorod male gymnasium and other public buildings.

The first thing that the new rector had to start his activity with was a letter of protest against the planned construction of a sago plant on a plot of land closely adjacent to the Church of Michael the Archangel and only separated by a road from the eastern wall of the Spaso—Yakovlevsky Monastery.

A procession was made from the cathedral to the central Susanin Square, where a prayer service was held at the St. Alexander Chapel in the concelebration of the entire city clergy "for the granting of victory to the Russian Army over the enemy, and to the people over drunkenness."

On September 3, 1914, he ordered "to declare to all the deans, abbots and abbesses of monasteries and parish priests to provide possible assistance by collecting for the needs of the Red Cross for the entire duration of the war.

"[49] Upon his return to Rostov, Bishop Joseph completed the construction of a two-story stone House named after John of Kronstadt, built according to the latest technical requirements.

[57] After the opening on April 26 of the same year of the relics of the Rostov Wonderworkers in the Assumption Cathedral, the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Dimitrievsky and Avraamiev monasteries, Archbishop Joseph organized and led a procession as a protest.

At that time, hundreds of signatures of believers in his defense were collected in Rostov and surrounding villages; citizens' statements about the release of Archbishop Joseph were attached to the materials of the investigative case.

In Leningrad, the news of the appointment of a well-known fighter for the faith, a man of ascetic life and a learned bishop to the chair, widowed since 1922, after the execution of Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazansky) of Petrograd, was received with joy.

On the evening of September 13, Metropolitan Joseph left Leningrad for Novgorod to collect his belongings, and from there he was summoned to Moscow, where he had a conversation with Yevgeny Tuchkov, who oversees church affairs at the Joint State Political Directorate.

Being under threat of arrest, Metropolitan Joseph, a day after taking over the administration, on December 8, 1926, issued a testamentary decree-a message on the succession of the supreme church authority, naming 3 successors in case he could not fulfill his powers: Archbishops Cornelius (Sobolev) of Sverdlovsk, Thaddeus (Uspensky) of Astrakhan and Seraphim (Samoilovich) of Uglich.

As the Leningrad security officers informed Yevgeny Tuchkov, the registration was deliberately delayed "in order to identify the enemy," they were assigned the candidacies of Veryuzhsky, Bogolyubov and Zapadalov as "terry Tikhonites" and "supporters of Metropolitan Joseph."

There was nothing to object to his three main thoughts — about the need to legalize church administration, about the naturalness for our clergy abroad to abandon harsh speeches against the Soviet government and about the desirability of convening a Local All—Russian Council - it was all accepted by almost everyone.

Returning to Rostov, Joseph wrote a letter to Metropolitan Sergius on September 28, in which he again called the decision on his transfer "illegal and in no way acceptable," pointing out its cause as "the evil intrigue of a bunch of people who did not want him to stay in Leningrad."

Later, Metropolitan Joseph announced his refusal to comply with the decision to transfer to the Diosede of Odessa to Bishop Demetrius (Lyubimov), who visited him in Rostov, who brought this news to Leningrad.

On April 11, by the decree of the Deputy Locum Tenens and the Provisional Patriarchal Holy Synod, together with other bishops who had left the subordination of Metropolitan Sergius, he was dismissed to rest with the canonical trial of the archbishops and a ban in the priesthood.

Metropolitan Joseph also advocated the registration of the Josephite parishes in the state authorities, called on them to carry out their orders in relation to church affairs (taxes, patents for the production of candles, etc.

He was held in the investigative case "The All-Union Counterrevolutionary Monarchical Organization of churchmen "The True Orthodox Church"" together with the josephite bishops, Demetrius (Lyubimov), Alexius (Buy), lay activist Mikhail Novosyolov, Archpriest Anatoly Zhurakovsky, Professor Alexei Losev and others.

He lived in a small Kazakh adobe house on the outskirts of the town, where he occupied a room with an overhead light, furnished very modestly: there was a roughly made table, a trestle-bed on which he slept, and a couple of chairs.

[58] On September 15, 2012, a commemorative plaque made of black marble was installed in the town of Ustyuzhna (now Vologda Oblast), with the inscription in pre revolutionary orthography "in house No.

14 on this lane (former Kazansky) in 1872, the Holy Martyr Joseph, Metropolitan of Petrograd (secular name of Ivan Semyonovich Petrovykh), was born and lived the first 17 years of his life.