Nicholas Zalessky

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Zalessky was a priest of the Russian Church. He was born on 3 May 1877 in the village of Kharbay, Astrakhan district, now Fyodorovka, and was shot on 8 January 1931. He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, together with Archpriest Nikolai Tarbeev and Deacon Mikhail Smirnov, by decision of the Holy Synod of 20 and 21 April 2005.

He was born into the large family of a local psalmist, in which four of the sons became priests: Daniil, Nikolai, Feodor and Vasily. Nikolai finished the clerical school and, after his father's death, took on the support of the large family. In 1897 he was appointed psalmist at the church of Saint Catherine in the village of Krivobuzanskoye, Krasny Yar district, Astrakhan province. On 3 September 1904 he was ordained deacon at the Entry into Jerusalem church in Astrakhan. On 23 November 1907 he was entered on the staff of the Ilyinsky cemetery church in the town of Krasny Yar.

After the October Revolution, on 9 November 1918, Zalessky was ordained priest and sent to the village of Korduan in the Krasny Yar district, on whose territory battles of the civil war took place. Unlike many clergy, Father Nikolai remained in his parish. In 1922 the village of Korduan was removed from Astrakhan province and made part of the Guryev district of the Kazakh autonomous region, but remained under the Astrakhan bishop. He continued his service. In the early 1920s his wife died, and Nikolai Zalessky was left with five children in his care.

On 9 November 1929 he was appointed priest in the village of Vatazhnoye, in the Astrakhan region, where the rector of the cathedral in honour of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was Archpriest Nikolai Tarbeev. In September 1930 Nikolai Tarbeev was arrested. On 11 November 1930, among the others arrested was Nikolai Zalessky. On 17 December 1930 the three-⁠man tribunal of the political police for the Lower Volga region sentenced Father Nikolai Zalessky, Father Nikolai Tarbeev, Father Mikhail Smirnov and four other accused to the supreme penalty, death by shooting. The execution took place on 8 January 1931. The place of burial of the priests is not known.