Ivan Stepanovich Bellustin was born on January 10, 1819, in Staritsa, Tver province (now Staritsa, Tver Oblast, Russian Federation). He came from an old sacred and ecclesiastical family of the Tver diocese, known since 1710. He was a son of a teacher at the Staritsky theological school (later a priest) Stepan Ivanovich Belyustina.
Ivan Stepanovich got an education at the Tver Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1839.
In the years 1839-1843, Ivan Stepanovich worked as the priest of the village Vasicine of Kalyazin district. In 1843-1887- as the priest of the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Kalyazin, Tver province (now Kalyazin, Tver Oblast, Russian Federation).
Ivan Stepanovich is well known for his viewpoint about the need for "radical changes for the entire clergy": to raise the social status of the priest and significantly improve his financial situation, to introduce the principle of electability to all spiritual positions.
Ivan Stepanovich was married to the daughter of a priest in the village of Vasisina, Anna Lukinichna Moroshkina. The marriage produced 11 children. One of his sons, Nikolai Ivanovich Belyustin (1845-1908), served as a privy Councilor as Director of The Department of the Ministry of Finance.
(1845-1908)
His studies in historical research brought him closer to the professor of the Moscow University M. P. Pogodin, a well-known historian and publisher of "Moskvityanin", in which in the early 50s Ivan Stepanovich published several of his articles.
