Jacob Sokolov

Holy Hieromartyr Jacob Sokolov, a priest, was born in 1874 in the village of Timonovo in the Dmitrov district of Moscow province, in the family of the psalmist Ioann Sokolov. He finished the two-⁠class school and in 1893 was appointed psalmist at the church of the Entry into the Temple in the churchyard of Chernaya Gryaz. In 1914 Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky) of Moscow ordained him deacon, and in 1921 Bishop Seraphim (Zvezdinsky) of Dmitrov ordained him priest at the same church.

In 1930, for failure to deliver grain, the authorities arrested him and sentenced him to five years in a labour camp. Father Jacob succeeded in proving his innocence, and after eleven months in prison, by decision of the Moscow regional court, he was released.

On 27 November 1937 he was arrested again and imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow. False witnesses said that believers from other parishes came to the priest's home (with the windows of the house shuttered) and that he had expressed hostile views of Soviet power. He was interrogated immediately after the arrest. He did not admit guilt of anti-⁠Soviet activity and explained that singers came to his home for rehearsals, but he did not know their names. On 1 December 1937 an NKVD troika condemned him to death. The priest Jacob Sokolov was shot on 4 December 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.

He is commemorated on 5 December, on 29 May, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow (new style, the last two being movable days).