Nicholas Zavarin

Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Zavarin was a priest in the village of Piksur, in the Vologda province, and was shot on 19 August 1937; at the inquiry he said: "My weapon is the Gospel."

He was born on 4 May 1878 in the village of Kichmengsky Gorodok in the Nikolsk district of the Vologda province, in a priest's family. In 1892 he entered the theological school at Nikolsk, from which he withdrew in 1895 because of illness. In 1897, after the examination for teacher of parish schools, he became a teacher at the Saviour parish school of Verkhomolomsk. In August 1900 he was named reader at the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Vyatsko-⁠Nikolskoye and taught at other schools at the same time. In 1913 he was made reader, in 1916 ordained deacon at the same church, and on 25 April 1926, in the midst of the persecution, priest for the church of Saint Vladimir in the village of Piksur.

In 1931 he was sentenced by the people's court to a year in prison for non-⁠payment of arrears, but at the petition of his daughter, Nadezhda, he was acquitted on 27 February 1932 by the presidium of the regional court. Released, he served at the church of Saint Tryphon in the village of Berezovo. In November 1932 he was arrested again for "anti-⁠Soviet activity" and sentenced to five years; in 1933 he was released early and returned to Piksur. In September 1935 the activists of the Varzhensky village soviet resolved to close the church at Piksur, on the ground of a decision of the majority of voters, and filled it with grain. With Father Nicholas's blessing, the parishioners, led by his daughter, petitioned Moscow for the opening of the church, and in December 1935 the prosecutor was handed an order to clear it of oats within three days. Several further attempts to close it followed, under various pretexts, but each time the faithful defended their church.

On 16 February 1937 Father Nicholas and his daughter were arrested. He was charged that, "organiser of a counter-⁠revolutionary group among people close to the church, he carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation, called women to gather around the church and fight Soviet power, spread rumours about the fall of the authorities and the reckoning with the apostates, agitated about the wrong policy of the authorities, which leads to famine, and explained the rightness of the Trotskyists' struggle". At the arrest and search, asked about weapons, he said: "My weapon is the Gospel and religion, with them I fight." At the inquiry he did not admit guilt, and to the question about "counter-⁠revolutionary activity" he answered: "Since I served in the church, I sought to support faith among the people, to defend the church so that it should not be closed, but I never carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation." He named no one and accused no one, not even the false witnesses from among the clergy. He was shot on 19 August 1937.

He is remembered on 19 August, on 21 October in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vyatka, and on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors, in the new style.