Basil Kolosov

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Kolosov, a priest, by his full name Basil Ivanovich Kolosov, was born on 20 January 1876 in the village of Krivandino, Korobovo district, Moscow region, in the family of a psalm-⁠reader. He studied at the Ryazan seminary but broke off in the third class. In 1898 he was ordained deacon and served at the church in Struzhanovo, at the same time teaching religion in the village school. In 1911 he was ordained priest and sent to the Alexandro-⁠Mariinsky convent at Evlevo, Egoryevsk district. In 1916 he was sent as a regimental priest to the tsarist army. After the revolution he returned to parish service, from 1918 to 1924 at the church in Dmitrovsky Pogost, and from 1924 to 1934 at the church in Krivandino, where he had been born and raised. The church was closed in 1934, but he went on celebrating services at home until 1936, when he was made archpriest and sent to the village of Tugoles, where he served about a year.

On 1 May 1937 he was appointed to the church of the Holy Martyr Paraskeva in the village of Telma, where conditions were so hard that there could be no question of bringing his ailing wife. In a letter to the Patriarchate he asked to be moved, even as a psalm-⁠reader, to Tugoles or Petrovskoe, since his wife, old and with a heart defect, was left alone, while Telma was twenty-⁠two versts from the station. The bishop did not have time to answer, and a transfer came, but not the one he asked. On 27 November 1937 he was arrested and accused of active counter-⁠revolutionary agitation. He did not admit guilt. On 5 December the NKVD troika of Moscow region sentenced him to death, and on 9 December 1937 the saint was shot.

He is commemorated on 9 December, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, all in the new style.