Nicholas Protasov

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Protasov was a priest in the Moscow province and was shot in Kazakhstan on 19 November 1937, after three sentences.

He was born on 21 November 1867 in the village of Ivanovskoye in the Plavsk district, in the family of the priest Constantine Protasov. He attended the Tula seminary, which he finished in 1890, and in the same year received the priesthood. The first arrest took place in 1930, when he was charged with having contributed to the "non-⁠fulfilment of grain procurements"; he was sentenced to a year in prison and three years of banishment from the Moscow region. As soon as he left prison a new arrest followed, this time for "non-⁠payment of obligations to the state", with two years of imprisonment and five years of exile.

He was arrested again on 5 January 1937. The Special Council of the NKVD formulated the charge that he "expressed terrorist dispositions aimed at overthrowing Soviet power and destroying members of the party, praised the fascist order and spread slanderous and provocative rumours", and sentenced him to five years of exile in Kazakhstan. The last time the martyr was arrested was on 9 September of the same year, in Kazakhstan, almost immediately after arriving at the place of exile, in the case of the hieromonk Gabriel (Vladimirov) and others. He was sentenced to death and shot on 19 November 1937.

He is remembered on 19 November, on 5 October in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tula, and on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors, in the new style.