Nicholas Vostorgov

Saint Nicholas Vostorgov, hieromartyr, was a priest of the Russian Church, born in the Vladimir governorate and dead in the camp at Solovki on 1 February 1930. He was canonized in August 2000. He is commemorated on 19 January by the old calendar, which is 1 February by the new.

He was born in the village of Nikologorsky Pogost, Vyazniki district, Vladimir governorate, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader Evdokim Vostorgov, the only son among three sisters. He studied at the theological school in Vladimir but was forced to leave it. He lived as a novice at the Spaso-⁠Evfimiev monastery, then at the monasteries of Vyazniki and Bogolyubovo, and was cell attendant and secretary to the abbot of the Presentation hermitage of Ostrov. From 1897, from his marriage, until 1915 he was psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Goritsy cemetery, by lake Nikolskoe, in the Murom district.

In 1915 he was ordained deacon at the church of the Savior in the neighboring village of Dedovo. In the spring of 1927 he was ordained priest and appointed to the church in the village of Golyanishchevo, and in June 1928 he was moved to the village of Chulkovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

In August 1929 he was arrested at Chulkovo. He was accused of having "been the organizer of a public disorder that could have grown into terror against party and Soviet workers, led the collecting of signatures, and edited and wrote petitions". He was sentenced to three years of camp and sent to the fourth company of the Solovki Special Purpose Camp, but on arrival he fell ill with typhus and died on 1 February 1930.