Nicholas Rozin

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Rozin was a priest in the village of Bogoslovskoye, in the Yaroslavl province, and died in a camp in the North, after being found freezing on the bank of the Pechora.

He was born on 11 November 1879 in the village of Bogorodskoye-⁠Bolshoye in the Myshkin district of the Yaroslavl province, in a priest's family. He finished the Yaroslavl seminary in 1902, in the second category, and on 10 September 1902 became a teacher at the parish school at Aleferovo. On 6 July 1906 he was ordained priest for the church in the village of Bogoslovskoye-⁠v-⁠Sosnovtsakh, Yaroslavl district, and on 11 September was confirmed as teacher of religion at the zemstvo school. He served in Bogoslovskoye until 1930.

In December 1923 a criminal case was begun about the break-⁠up of a youth circle in the village, on the basis of the report of the party cell bureau of the volost, which said that the priest was agitating against the youth cultural circle and frightening the unenlightened peasants with religious superstitions. Witnesses said that the priest had contributed to the break-⁠up of the circle, leaving the hall each time the Internationale was sung. At the interrogation he denied it and said he had not stood against the circle, even giving furniture for the performances. Asked what line he followed as a priest, he answered: "I follow the religious line." He was arrested on 17 January 1924, and on 2 February the case was closed "for insufficient evidence". The parishioners loved him and visited him often; when needed, church meetings were held at his house. "Orthodox", he said at one of them, "you must stand for the Church, struggle against what undermines it."

He was arrested again on 12 February 1930, charged with systematic anti-⁠Soviet agitation, "aimed at disrupting the measures of the authorities and at the decomposition of collective farm building". On 2 March 1930 he was sentenced to three years in a camp and sent to the Northern Territory. The priest Nicholas Rozin died in the camp. He was found lying under a boat on the bank of the Pechora, freezing; he had hidden from the wind under the boat. When he was taken to hospital, it turned out that he had typhus.

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