George Kolokolov

Holy Hieromartyr George Kolokolov, a priest, received the crown of martyrdom on 9 December 1937, shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow, together with the priest Nazarius Gribkov, killed on 11 December, and the psalm reader Peter Tsarapkin, martyr. In 1937, in the time of the persecution, the authorities often arrested all the servants of a church, priests, psalm readers and singers, above all if among them there were nuns or novices.

The arrest

On 21 November 1937 an NKVD officer questioned the secretary of the village soviet in the village of Tugoles, Shatura district, Moscow region, Basil Yazykov, who signed testimony about the anti-⁠Soviet activity of the priests of the church of the Great Martyr Paraskeva in the village. It was said that in Tugoles there was a counterrevolutionary group of churchmen, to which belonged the priests Nazarius Gribkov and George Iosifovich Kolokolov and the psalm reader Tsarapkin; that they gathered often, carried on propaganda against the collective farms, drew out the services in harvest time and spread slanders about the camps, saying that there people were made to work beyond their strength, badly fed, and died, and that the psalm reader had said that the constitution was nonsense. The same day a collective farmer, Ivan Krylov, was also questioned, whom the NKVD men summoned, feasted with vodka, gave drinking money, and he signed all that was asked of him. On 27 November Archpriest George Kolokolov and the psalm reader Peter Tsarapkin were arrested, and the next day Archpriest Nazarius Gribkov, all three being imprisoned in Butyrka in Moscow.

Father George

The saint was born on 22 October 1876 in Moscow, in the family of the deacon Joseph Kolokolov. In 1898 he finished the Moscow Theological Seminary, in 1899 he was ordained deacon at the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Spasskoe-⁠Tushino, and in 1904 priest at the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Aksinino, Zvenigorod district, and appointed teacher of religion at the people's school of Aksinino and at the parish school of the district, in which he remained until 1918. From 1908 he had the obedience of teacher of the Law of God at the school of Lipki, in the same district, and from 1909 to 1918 he was a member of the Council of the Zvenigorod-⁠Savvin section of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. In 1924 he received a pectoral cross for zealous service, in 1927 he was raised to archpriest, and in 1930 he received the palitsa.

In 1931 the authorities arrested him and sentenced him to five years. For a year he was at forced labour, on the construction of the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal, then, from March 1932 to June 1933, he worked as bookkeeper in one of the sections of the Solovki camps, at the point Sennukha. On his return from the camp, in 1933, the bishop of Orekhovo-⁠Zuevo, John Shirokov, vicar of the Moscow diocese, appointed him rector of the church of Saint Paraskeva at Tugoles. In 1934 he received a pectoral cross with ornaments, and in 1935 the mitre.

On 27 November 1937 he was arrested. The investigator asked him what relations he had with Gribkov and Tsarapkin and he answered that they were very friendly, that they served in the same church and visited each other often. Asked whether he had carried on anti-⁠Soviet propaganda, he said no; then, when he was told that he had spoken of the unbearable life in the camps and of the abuse of people, he admitted that he had indeed told people that in the camps life is tormenting and hard and that people are mocked.

The two with him

Holy Hieromartyr Nazarius was born on 22 October 1879 in the village of Ogryzkovo, Egoryevsk district, Ryazan province, in the family of the peasant Stephen Gribkov. He sang in the boys' choir and discovered a great gift for singing, and through singing he came to love the service and wished to serve the Church. From 1899 he served as psalm reader, from 1906 at the cathedral of Egoryevsk. In 1916 he married the maiden Claudia, who died at the birth of their son, Nicholas, so named by her wish. He was ordained deacon in 1916, and in 1919 priest at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Berezovka; in 1926 he received a cross, in 1928 he was raised to archpriest. From 1929 he served at the church of Saint Paraskeva in Tugoles. In 1931 he was arrested and exiled for five years to Kazakhstan, to Alma-⁠Ata and Aktyubinsk, from where he returned in the spring of 1936. In those years his son was raised by two pious women of the village. On 28 November 1937 he was arrested; questioned, he said that he had carried on no anti-⁠Soviet agitation. The martyr Peter Tsarapkin was born on 10 December 1883 in the village of Boboshino, in a shoemaker's family; he learned the trade of retoucher and worked in photographic studios, but all his free time he gave to church singing, singing in the choir of the Danilov Monastery. In 1933 he was driven out of Moscow for belonging to the Church. In March 1937 he was sent as psalm reader to the church in Tugoles. On 27 November 1937 he was arrested and at the interrogations did not admit guilt.

On 5 December 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced to death Archpriest George and Archpriest Nazarius, and the psalm reader Peter Tsarapkin to ten years in a camp, where he died. Archpriest George Kolokolov was shot on 9 December, and Archpriest Nazarius Gribkov on 11 December 1937, at the Butovo firing range, both buried in unknown common graves. Saint George is commemorated, according to the Azbyka page, on 23 August and on 9 December.