Basil Koklin

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Koklin was a priest of the Russian Church in Moscow. He was born on 20 January 1883 in Moscow and was shot on 5 April 1938 at the Butovo firing range. He was canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church in August 2000.

Basil Pavlovich Koklin had a secondary education and finished the four-⁠class city school. He took part in the First World War, from 1915 to 1918. On returning from the front he helped his father in trade, and from 1922 to 1927 he himself kept a trading stall at the Zatsepsky market. In 1927 he was ordained deacon, then priest, and in the same year was appointed cleric at the church of the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign in the village of Perovo, where he served until 1938.

On 21 January 1938 he was arrested with a group of clergy from the churches of the Ukhtomsky district of the Moscow region and held in the Taganka prison. At the interrogation he was told that he had belonged to a counter-⁠revolutionary organization led by Archpriest Vladimir Vozdvizhensky, that he had carried on counter-⁠revolutionary activity and had expressed defeatist feelings toward Soviet power. Father Basil denied all of this and did not admit guilt. Since he refused to declare himself guilty, he was confronted with Priest Sergius Sakharov, of the same church, who after his arrest had agreed to give the testimony the investigation required. Even before him Father Basil admitted nothing.

On 15 March 1938 a three-⁠man NKVD tribunal sentenced him to death, and on 5 April 1938 he was shot at the Butovo range. The Council of Bishops of the Russian Church of 13 to 16 August 2000 numbered him among the holy hieromartyrs. His commemoration is on 5 April, the day of his martyrdom (23 March by the old calendar), and on the first Sunday before 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.