Nicholas Orlov

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Orlov was a priest in the village of Rybnitsy, in the Kostroma province, and was shot on 26 August 1937.

He was born on 15 February 1881 in the village of Rybnitsy in the Bolshe-⁠Solsk district of the Kostroma province, in a hereditary priestly family. After the seminary at Yaroslavl he was sent to teach at the people's school in the village of Petropavlovskoye, about fifteen kilometres from Rybnitsy. He married and, in 1911, received the priesthood, being assigned to the church of his native village. In this church and in the neighbouring village of Bor several generations of Orlovs served, over a hundred years in all: they baptised, married and anointed almost the whole population. The saint's father, the archpriest Peter Guryevich, served in the church of Rybnitsy forty-⁠four years; the son was not given to serve so long.

When in the thirties the persecutions began, Father Nicholas, so as not to bring trouble to the parishioners with whom he lodged in turn, asked the warden to adapt an annex of the church for living, a former storeroom with one window, in which plank beds were made, and the family was able to settle there. He was repressed three times; the last arrest took place on 5 June 1937, on the charge of "taking part in a counter-⁠revolutionary group and in anti-⁠Soviet gatherings". He did not admit guilt. On 25 August 1937 the NKVD troika of the Yaroslavl region sentenced him to death, and on 26 August he was shot. In 2000 the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the holy martyrs.

He is remembered on 26 August, 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.