Herman Kosolapov

Holy Hieromartyr Herman Kosolapov (in the world Nikolai Vasilyevich Kosolapov) was born on 22 October 1882 at Saratov and was killed in the night of 10 October 1919, in the same city. He was bishop of Volsk, vicar of the diocese of Saratov. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on 26 December 2006. He is remembered on 27 September, on the old calendar.

Youth and monastic life

He was born in the family of a state councillor, a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Alexander-⁠Maryinsky real school in Saratov, where he studied between 1893 and 1900. In 1902 he passed the examination at the first men's gymnasium of Saratov. On 8 January 1905 he was tonsured a monk and then ordained hieromonk. In 1906 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, with the title of candidate in theology. From 1906 he was assistant overseer of the theological school at Sarapul, in the Vyatka province, from 1907 of that at Kamyshin, and from 13 March 1908 overseer of the school at Petrovsk, raised to archimandrite. From 2 July 1911 he was overseer of the school at Oboyan, in the Kursk province, from 1 February 1913 of the school at Kursk, and from 26 April 1916 rector of the seminary of Vladimir.

The bishop

From 11 (24) February 1918 he was bishop of Volsk, vicar of the diocese of Saratov, and from July to September 1918 he temporarily led the diocese of Saratov. After the arrest, on 24 August 1918, of the priest Michael Platonov, for the memorial service held at the church of Saint Seraphim in Saratov for the royal martyrs, for having "stirred up the crowds in a sermon" and for writing and spreading writings against Soviet power, he blessed the Diocesan Council to stop the services in the church, apart from the needed offices, and to call the parishioners to fight for their pastor and demand his release: if pastors do not spare themselves for the flock, then the flock too must selflessly defend its spiritual father.

On 16 September 1918 he was arrested on the charge of having "staged a ban on worship by the Soviet power". In October 1918, at a show trial, he was sentenced to fifteen years of deprivation of liberty, with forced labour. The priest Michael Platonov was sentenced to death by shooting at the same trial, and Archpriest Alexei Khitrov to the same penalty as the bishop. About ten thousand believers of Saratov and Volsk signed the petition for the release of Bishop Herman and the other arrested clergy. In December 1918 the sentence was annulled and the case sent for a new trial. He was released, but in January 1919 he was again sentenced to fifteen years. In April 1919 he was released, but in May was arrested again.

Martyrdom

Because of the advance of Denikin's armies, by decision of the Saratov provincial extraordinary commission, meeting on 8 October 1919, he was sentenced to death by shooting, among other prisoners condemned "for anti-⁠Soviet agitation and as implacable enemies of the workers' and peasants' power". By tradition, when the prisoners learned of the planned shooting, the clergy led by the bishop performed, within the walls of the Saratov prison, the funeral service for themselves and for their lay fellow prisoners. He was killed together with Archpriest Andrei Shansky (formerly secretary of the chancery of Bishop Hermogenes Dolganev), the priest Michael Platonov and ten laymen, in the night of 10 October 1919. A little earlier, on 2 October 1919, the Saratov extraordinary commission, taking as a pretext the killing of the secretary of the Moscow city committee of the party, V. M. Zagorsky, decided to carry out red terror and to shoot hostages from among the prisoners. On 30 September, in the same place, Archpriest Gennady Makhrovsky (rector of the Holy Trinity cathedral of Saratov), the priest Olimp Diakonov and twenty-⁠six laymen were shot.