Nicholas Bryantsev

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Bryantsev was a priest in the city of Yaroslavl and was shot by the Bolsheviks on 8 July 1918 because he refused to allow a cannon to be raised in the bell tower of his church.

He was born in 1867 and served at the city church of Pyatnitsko-⁠Tugovskaya in Yaroslavl. In July 1918, during the uprising in the city, the Bolsheviks wanted to put a cannon on the bell tower to fire on the city; Father Nicholas would not allow it, and they shot him by the church itself.

For a long time the place of his burial remained unknown. Matushka Galina, wife of Father Dimitri Denisov, rector of the church, was leafing through the church inventory of 1950 and found beside a Gospel book a note in violet ink: "buried with the body of the murdered priest Bryantsev". Later, in a register, she found another: "killed 8 July, funeral service 18 July by priestly rite, buried at the local cemetery". The priest's grandson and great-⁠granddaughter, who live in Yaroslavl, learned of this for the first time from the matushka. The saint is now the heavenly patron of Tugova Hill and of the whole city.

He is remembered on 21 July, on 5 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, and on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors, in the new style.