Nicholas Ashchepev

Holy Venerable Martyr Nicholas Ashchepev was an abbot and was shot in September 1937, at Karaganda, together with Metropolitan Eugene of Nizhny Novgorod and four other martyrs.

With him suffered the Holy Hieromartyr Eugene (Zernov), Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod, the Holy Hieromartyr Stephen Kreidich, the priest, and the Venerable Martyrs, the abbot Eugene (Vyzhva) and the hieromonk Pachomius (Ionov). The Azbyka page says nothing about Father Nicholas's life but presents the life of Metropolitan Eugene, which we summarise.

Metropolitan Eugene

Eugene, in the world Semyon Alexeevich Zernov, was born on 18 January 1877 in the Moscow province, in the family of a deacon. He finished the Moscow seminary and entered the theological academy. He was tonsured a monk in 1900 and ordained hieromonk in 1902. He was professor of sectology at the Chernigov seminary, then inspector and from 1906 rector of the Irkutsk seminary, as archimandrite. He succeeded in restoring order in the seminary without repressive measures, winning the trust and love of all, and he had the gift of preaching. In 1913 he was consecrated bishop of Kirensk, vicar at Irkutsk, and in 1914 he was appointed to the see of Amur and Blagoveshchensk. He was a member of the Local Council of 1917-1918. In 1923 he was arrested at night, on the eve of the Dormition. The whole town defended him, and the Chekists called out the fire brigade to scatter the crowd with water. He was released the same year, and Patriarch Tikhon raised him to archbishop and, in 1924, named him a member of the Holy Synod. In 1924 he was arrested again and sentenced to three years in a camp, which he spent at Solovki, where the other bishops recognised him as their senior. In July 1926 he took part in drawing up the Solovki Epistle of the bishops to the government of the USSR. From 1927 to 1929 he was in exile in the Zyryan land. He did not separate from Metropolitan Sergius after his Declaration. He was a strict faster, never ate meat, nor fish at the wrong time, and his services were full of grandeur, peace and reverence. After 1929 he lived at Kotelnich, was named archbishop of Kotelnich, and then, in 1934, was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod. In 1935, after the Paschal service that fell on 1 May, when he was told to wait for the demonstrators to pass, he answered, "Why should we fear? We must fear God", and went home through the streets in his klobuk. He was arrested, accused of anti-⁠Soviet agitation and sentenced to three years in the Karaganda camp.

The killing

In September 1937 an NKVD troika of the Karaganda region sentenced him to death. On 20 September (7 September in the old style) 1937 he was shot together with the priest Stephen Kreidich, the abbots Eugene (Vyzhva) and Nicholas (Ashchepev) and the hieromonk Pachomius (Ionov). All were numbered among the saints, the new martyrs and confessors, by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000. Their memory is kept on 20 September and on 7 February (a movable day), in the new style.