Nicholas Andreev

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Andreev was an archpriest at Bogorodsk, in the Moscow region, and was shot at the Butovo range on 10 December 1937.

He was born on 8 February 1869 in the town of Windau (Ventspils), in the Courland province, in the family of the priest Alexander Andreev. He finished primary school and the teachers' seminary and was ordained priest to one of the churches of Riga. In the First World War he was evacuated with his family to the Moscow province and appointed to the Epiphany Cathedral in the town of Bogorodsk (Noginsk), where he served until his arrest in 1937. For his zealous and blameless service he was raised to the rank of archpriest.

On 26 November 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Noginsk. The next day false witnesses were questioned, one of whom said that the priest, after the service, had spoken to the faithful about the arrest of the "twenty" and asked them to sign a list so as not to let the authorities close the cathedral. Questioned the following day, Father Nicholas said that he had come from Latvia in 1917, at the evacuation of Riga, and that in Latvia he had been a priest. He admitted that he had read sermons to the faithful, but from books, and denied that he had spread slanders about the authorities. He did not admit guilt.

On 1 December 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was shot on 10 December 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave on the Butovo range. His memory is kept on 10 December, on 29 May (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.