Gerasim Mochalov

Holy Venerable Martyr Gerasim Mochalov, hieromonk, was one of the New Martyrs of Russia, put to death in the time of the Bolshevik persecution, and is honoured among the martyrs of Butovo. His name in the world was Grigory Ignatievich Mochalov.

He was born in 1870 in the village of Marinino in the Dmitrov district of Moscow province, to a peasant family, and attended the village school. On 6 September 1903 he was received as a novice at the Smolensk Zosima Hermitage in Vladimir province, where he did his obedience in the locksmith's workshop. On 13 December 1906 he was enrolled in the brotherhood, and on 2 April 1908 he was tonsured into the mantle and received the name Gerasim. In 1910 he was ordained hierodeacon, and in 1920 hieromonk.

In 1923 the hermitage was closed by the godless authorities, and Father Gerasim moved to the Saint Nicholas monastery of Pesnosha in the Dmitrov district, where he served until it too was closed. He was then assigned to the church in the village of Gari. From 1936 he served in the Protection of the Mother of God church in the village of Kikino.

He was arrested on 27 November 1937, imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow and interrogated the same day. The investigation charged him with anti-⁠Soviet activity among the people and with gatherings in the house of his landlady. Father Gerasim firmly rejected all the accusations, admitting only that he lived there and that if anyone came to him, it was only to arrange the celebration of church sacraments.

False witnesses signed the records that the investigation required, and on 1 December an NKVD troika condemned him to death. Hieromonk Gerasim was shot on 4 December 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.

He is commemorated on several days: on 29 May, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 6 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, on 1 October, among the new martyrs of the Vladimir land, and also on 5 and 10 December (new style).