Constantine Sokolov

Holy Hieromartyr Constantine Sokolov, a priest, was born on 3 May 1875 in the village of Lyubertsy, Moscow district, in the family of the deacon Michael Sokolov. His full name was Constantine Mikhailovich Sokolov. In 1896 he graduated from the Moscow theological seminary and was ordained priest. Until 1936 he served at the Transfiguration church in the village of Lyubertsy, and from 18 June 1936 at the church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Smolino, Vereya district.

In October 1937 NKVD officers questioned witnesses, who stated that the priest Constantine Sokolov was agitating for the Church, calling for faith in Christ and a righteous life, setting Saint Mary of Egypt as an example. On 20 September, after the vigil on the eve of the Nativity of the Mother of God, he told the believers that he had asked the NKVD for permission to go round the parish with services of prayer but had not received it, and so asked the parishioners to come to church for the services of prayer. He added that he had also approached the chairman of the village soviet, asking him to permit services of prayer without informing the district authorities, but he had refused. He had also sent the members of the church council to collect the signatures of collective farmers for a petition to hold a procession, likewise without success.

On 17 November 1937 Father Constantine was arrested. At first he was held in the Mozhaisk prison, then moved to the Taganka prison in Moscow. The investigator asked him whether, in connection with Stalin's constitution, he had said that Soviet laws permitted services in church and processions round the church and through the houses of collective farmers, but that in fact these were forbidden. The priest answered that he had had such a conversation with the chairman of the soviet, after the parishioners had asked him to hold a procession around the church, that he had asked why one could not go round the church on feast days, for which no permission is needed, but that he had said nothing about Stalin's constitution. He denied having interpreted the constitution in an anti-⁠Soviet spirit. He confirmed that the church council had asked him to go with services of prayer, that he had said it was a matter for the believers, that the council had collected signatures and that he had approached the village soviet, where he was refused.

On 25 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a labour camp. On 9 January 1938 he arrived at the Suslovo section of the Siblag of the NKVD. The priest Constantine Sokolov died in the camp, of hunger and overwork, on 25 March 1938, and was buried in an unknown grave.

He is commemorated on 25 March, the day of his death, on 7 February, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, on 29 August, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Kuzbass, and on 5 September, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.