Constantine Kolpetsky

Holy Hieromartyr Constantine Kolpetsky, a priest, was born on 15 May 1885 in the village of Frolovskoe, Kashin district, Tver province, in the family of the priest Alexei Kolpetsky. He studied at the theological seminary in Tver and was ordained priest, but it is not known for which church. Of many of our martyrs very little has been kept: the place of service, the time of arrest, a short interrogation record and the act of execution, and so it is with Father Constantine.

In 1931 he was sentenced, for non-⁠payment of tax, to six months in a labour camp. In 1935 he was arrested again for non-⁠payment of taxes and held for a year in a camp. After returning he served at the church of the village of Sukromlya, Novotorzhok district, Tver region. Stalin's order had not yet reached the regional NKVD offices, and Father Constantine had already been arrested, on 5 August 1937. The arrested were first brought to the village soviet. In the room where Father Constantine was taken there were three arrested peasants. Sensing that he would never again go free, Constantine began, in agitation, to walk from corner to corner. The guard called out to him and demanded that he sit down, but Father Constantine did not obey, and then the guard fell on him with his fists.

On the same day he was put in the Tver prison. On 9 August a short interrogation took place: he was asked to tell of the anti-⁠Soviet, counter-⁠revolutionary agitation he had carried on among the people, and he answered that he had carried on no such agitation, and repeated the same when told he was not telling the truth. On 20 September the NKVD troika sentenced him to death, and the priest Constantine Kolpetsky was shot on 23 September 1937.

He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000. He is commemorated on 23 September, the day of his death, on 18 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver (the date moves), and on 7 February, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, in the new style.