Eustathius Sokolsky

Holy Hieromartyr Eustathius Sokolsky, a priest, was born on 20 February 1874 in the village of Rozhdestvo in the Medyn district of the Kaluga province, in the family of the deacon Peter Sokolsky. He received the crown of martyrdom by shooting on 17 February 1938 at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.

In 1895 Eustathius Petrovich finished the theological seminary and for a year served as a village teacher. In 1896 he was ordained priest for the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Kamenskoe in the Zvenigorod district of the Moscow province, one of the oldest churches of the diocese, built in the second half of the fourteenth century. The village then belonged to the estates of the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow.

His parishioners loved Father Eustathius for his zealous ministry and because he never asked money for services; when it was offered, and he saw that the family was poor, he always refused, saying they would need it themselves. When persecution began from the godless, a large choir that he had organized continued to sing in the church, with eight singers at each choir stand.

On 1 December 1927 the authorities arrested him and held him in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. He was accused of preaching anti-⁠Soviet sermons and of spreading among the peasants an appeal of monarchist content. Despite all the investigators' efforts, his guilt could not be proved, and on 29 February 1928 he was released.

He was arrested a second time on 27 January 1938, during the mass arrests of the clergy. Shortly before, an official from the Moscow administration had telephoned the Naro-⁠Fominsk branch of the NKVD and asked how many people they planned to arrest, and was told to carry out that number. Those chosen first were people already denounced and those who, by origin or occupation, had no place in the new order, that is, clergy and church workers. The investigators drew up records of the "testimony of witnesses," which were signed by duty witnesses, then the accused was summoned and asked to sign a prepared record of interrogation in which he admitted guilt; whoever refused was cruelly beaten. Father Eustathius found himself in these circumstances, but he did not admit guilt and would not sign.

Throughout the investigation he was kept in his village in a cold shed. Although it was winter, they took away his outer clothing and gave him no food. From cold and hunger the priest fell ill, and when he was taken out to be carried to Taganka prison in Moscow he was barely alive. When he was led away, the whole village gathered to see him off.

On 11 February 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Father Eustathius Sokolsky was shot on 17 February 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range. He is commemorated on 17 February (new style), that is 4 February by the old calendar, on 29 May, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo on a movable day, and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow on 5 September.