Nicholas Krasovsky

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Krasovsky was a priest of the Vladimir region, born on 7 May 1876 and shot on 31 January 1938 at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by decision of the Holy Synod of 17 July 2001, for veneration throughout the Church. His feast is on 18 January (31 January by the new calendar) and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He was born in the village of Voinova Gora in the Pokrov district of Vladimir province, into a priest's family. His father, Constantine Vasilievich, graduated from the Vladimir seminary in 1850 and served from 1854 at the Dormition church of Voinova Gora; he died on 2 June 1891. Two brothers, Sergius and Alexander, also became priests.

After the seminary, Nicholas taught at the school of Gorodishche, near Usad station. In the First World War he worked as an orderly in a hospital in Moscow, and then returned to teaching. In 1922 the church of his village was closed and turned into a club. He was dismissed from teaching because he refused to carry out the authorities' blasphemous order to bring the pupils to that club.

In 1924 he was ordained deacon at the Dormition church of Voinova Gora. In 1931 he refused to serve with the Renovationists. In 1932 he was ordained priest for the church of the village of Kabanovo in the Orekhovo-⁠Zuevo district. He was always compassionate to the poor and suffering, helping with food those left without means of livelihood.

On 18 January 1938 he served the all-⁠night vigil for Theophany and that same night he was arrested and imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow. The investigators accused him of agitation against Soviet power, of slandering the new constitution and the collective farms, and of insurrectionary agitation among the inhabitants of Voinova Gora. To each accusation he replied that he did not admit it and that he had never carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation.

After a few days, by a decision of 25 January 1938, the special troika of the NKVD administration for the Moscow region sentenced Father Nicholas to death by shooting. He was shot on 31 January 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at Butovo.