Neophytus Osipov

Saint Neophytus (in the world Nikolai Alexandrovich Osipov, 1875-1937), venerable martyr, was an archimandrite, formerly a missionary in Beijing, a seminary rector and secretary to Patriarch Tikhon. He died in 1937, shot in a camp in Siberia, and was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009. He is commemorated on 21 October (3 November by the new calendar).

Formation and mission

He was born on 9 (21) May 1875 at Augustów, in Suwałki province, in the family of a military medic, Alexander Osipov. He graduated at state expense from the church school at Kholm (1891) and the Kholm seminary (1897). During his studies at the Academy he was tonsured a monk on 19 August 1900 with the name Neophytus, on 27 September ordained hierodeacon and on 14 May 1901 hieromonk. In 1901 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy as candidate of theology and was appointed teacher of homiletics and liturgics at the Kholm seminary. By decree of the Holy Synod of 1 July 1902 he was appointed to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing, where he was a connoisseur of Chinese and Hebrew and translated service books. On 5 May 1903, because of illness, he was released from the mission and was then supervisor of the school at Tikhvin. On 17 October 1905 he was appointed rector of the Samara seminary and raised to archimandrite, was censor of the diocesan gazette (1905-1908) and chairman of the school council. On 24 November 1909 he was appointed, on the proposal of Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), rector of the Volhynia seminary. From 1911 he was a member of the educational committee of the Holy Synod, from 1912 a member of the spiritual censorship committee in Petersburg, and from 1915 senior member. In April 1917 he asked to be released.

Secretary of the Patriarch

In 1918, at the invitation of Patriarch Tikhon, whom he had known when studying at Kholm, he moved to Moscow and became his secretary, living at the Troitskoe metochion. On 5 May 1922, with the start of the investigation against the Patriarch in connection with the confiscation of valuables, all those at the metochion were arrested, among them Archimandrite Neophytus. The GPU tried to recruit him as an informer, but without success. On 25 November 1922 he was sentenced to three years of exile in the Zyryan region, at Ust-⁠Sysolsk, where he became friends with Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan, they served together and corresponded for a long time. In 1925 he returned to Moscow and lived quietly, giving much time to prayer.

Arrests and martyrdom

On 29 September 1927 he was arrested and sentenced to three years of exile in Siberia, reduced by a quarter through amnesty, at Novosibirsk. In 1929 he was forbidden to live in several towns, and only in July 1933 could he move to the European part of Russia, at Uglich. In June 1934 he moved to the village of Zabolotye, where many priests and monks who had served their sentences lived. On 10 April 1935 he was arrested, accused of systematic anti-⁠Soviet agitation, spreading rumours about persecution, and imprisoned at Butyrka. On 14 June 1935 he was sentenced to five years in camp, and on 13 August he reached the Antibes camp point near Mariinsk. On 10 October 1937 he was arrested again, on 28 October the NKVD troika of Novosibirsk sentenced him to death, and on 3 November 1937 he was shot and buried in an unknown common grave.

On 23 January 2009 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to enter his name among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, on the basis of materials presented by the Moscow diocese.