Jacob Gusev

Holy Hieromartyr Jacob Gusev of Diveyevo, a priest, was born on 19 October 1887 in the village of Diveyevo, Ardatov district, Nizhny Novgorod province, in the family of Archpriest Ioann Feofanovich Gusev, a priest of the Seraphim-⁠Diveyevo monastery. He was shot on 26 December 1937 at Gorky.

His family and ordination

The life of the Gusev family had long been closely tied to the Seraphim-⁠Diveyevo monastery, for the Gusevs were descendants of the monastery's first priest, Archpriest Vasily Sadovsky, to whom Venerable Seraphim of Sarov had entrusted the orphans of Diveyevo. On the third day after birth, the infant was baptised by the parish priest, Ioann Smirnov, in the church of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God at Diveyevo. His godparents were the court councillor Peter de Beaumont and the monastery's treasurer, the nun Elena Annenkova. He was given the name Jacob, in honour of the brother of the Lord, the Holy Apostle James. The Gusev children received their primary education under their father, a teacher at the monastery's parish school. After school the brothers Jacob and Mikhail entered the seminary at Nizhny Novgorod.

About 1910 Jacob Ivanovich married Elena Nikolaevna Vinogradova, a relative of the priest Ioann Smirnov. On 10 June 1910 he finished the seminary, and on 30 January 1911 Bishop Joachim ordained him priest for the village of Khudoshino, Ardatov district. He taught the Law of God in the zemstvo schools of Khudoshino and Kadyshevo. On 30 May 1914 he was appointed priest of the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Elizarievo. He settled in a large house opposite the church. In the house was kept a treasure from Diveyevo, a piece of granite on which Venerable Seraphim had prayed, with a painting of the saint praying on the stone.

The priest's family was at once loved in the village; husband, wife and children were distinguished by unusual kindness and modesty, by hospitality. Father Jacob was sociable and approachable, and people came to him for counsel in all spiritual and worldly needs. He served piously and prayerfully, was attentive at confessions, and the parishioners loved his sermons: few in number, but they reached the heart of everyone in the church; he spoke in a quiet voice, explained the commandments of God simply, urged that they be kept, and exhorted the erring and the careless not to be idle in work for their families and to thank the Lord for everything.

Soviet power was established in Elizarievo in February 1918, and in the spring of 1919 a new division of land took place. Then the priest, as a servant of religion, was deprived of electoral rights. This brought many oppressions, not only for those deprived of rights but for their families: they could be driven out of their dwellings, expelled from the town, deprived of ration cards and medical aid, and the children expelled from schools.

In 1927, at the dissolution of the Seraphim-⁠Diveyevo monastery, Father Jacob's younger brother, Archpriest Mikhail Ivanovich Gusev, was arrested. After two weeks he was released and went at once to the bishop to ask for a parish, and his family moved to Elizarievo, to Father Jacob's house. That year, as the daughter of Mikhail remembered, Father Jacob's house was full of relatives needing shelter. Father Jacob and his wife were like kin to everyone. The niece Maria Mikhailovna Guseva remembered the tie with Elizarievo as bright, welcoming, sunny and beloved. The Diveyevo nun Seraphima (Bulgakova) wrote that the priest brothers settled them, the persecuted sisters of the monastery, in Elizarievo. The priests had been born near the monastery, loved the nuns as their kin, and supported them spiritually and even materially. Father Jacob, going to the market, brought them potatoes and milk, and when they came, he and his wife gave them bread, milk, honey and berries, as much as they could carry. With the blessing of the brothers Gusev, the blessed Maria Ivanovna of Diveyevo was brought to Elizarievo from the village of Puzo.

Persecution and martyrdom

Father Jacob constantly suffered harassment from the authorities: he was accused of opposing the installation of a radio in the village, of anti-⁠Soviet agitation among the backward part of the population, or of organising the break-⁠up of the collective farm. In 1930 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Gorky jail; his house was taken. In 1931 he was arrested again and dekulakised. In 1935 a new arrest followed. When it became known that the village council had decided to close the church of Elizarievo and use it as a grain store, the old women agreed that after the service on Sunday 7 March 1935 they would go round the villagers' houses and collect signatures against the closing of the church. The priest was accused of instigation. At the interrogations all the old women said with one voice: No one sent us, we did it ourselves. In 1935 the priest was not sentenced, but two years later the testimonies and the records of his interrogations were added to the criminal case of 1937.

On 20 November 1937 he was arrested in the church itself and, without being allowed even to go home, was taken to the Arzamas jail. The same day his younger brother, Archpriest Mikhail, was shot at Gorky. Archpriest Jacob Ivanovich Gusev was interrogated only once, and the charge of anti-⁠Soviet activity was put to him. He conducted himself with dignity and courage at the interrogations and, like his younger brother, the hieromartyr Mikhail, did not admit guilt. On 24 November 1937 the indictment was signed and the case was passed to the troika of the UNKVD of Gorky region. On 2 December came the sentence: to be shot, his property confiscated. On the extract from the record is written: Shot in Gorky on 26 December 1937.

On 30 July 2003, at a session of the Holy Synod, the name of the hieromartyr Jacob Gusev was entered in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia of the twentieth century, from the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. He is commemorated on 26 December, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 27 June, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Diveyevo, and on 12 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Nizhny Novgorod (new style, the second and fourth being movable days).