Peter Sokolov

Holy Hieromartyr Peter Sokolov, an archpriest, was born on 15 January 1873 in the family of the priest Vasily Sokolov of the Motoma parish, Belozersk district, Novgorod province. He attended the school of his native village, then the spiritual school at Belozersk and the Novgorod seminary, finished in 1892. The same year he was named psalmist at the cathedral of a military fortress in Dvinsk, in 1895 he was moved to Moscow to a church attached to a military unit, and in 1896 was ordained deacon for the church of Saint Nicholas in Old Vagankovo, near the Rumyantsev Museum. The clergy of this church shepherded the soldiers of the artillery of the Moscow Military District; the abbot then was the priest Leonid Chichagov, later Metropolitan Seraphim, who died a martyr.

In 1902 Deacon Peter was moved to the church of the 1st Grenadier Artillery Brigade on Khodynka field. In 1908 he was ordained priest and served at the church of the Sergius-⁠Elizabeth labour school for disabled soldiers in Moscow. In 1919, with the closing of all the churches of pre-⁠revolutionary schools, he was named to the church of Constantine and Helen in the village of Maidanovo, Klin district, and in 1930 was moved to the church of the Sorrowful Mother of God in Klin. In 1921 he was raised to archpriest, in 1930 received a mitre, in 1925 was named dean of the Klin district, and in 1936 of Solnechnogorsk also. He served at the Sorrowful church until his arrest in 1938.

At the end of January 1938 an on-⁠duty witness was interrogated, and on the very day of the arrest, 2 February, the priest's neighbour, who signed a statement prepared by the investigator. The investigator asked the priest with whom he had ties; he answered that he knew everyone through his office and had ties only from the duty of service. He was accused of voicing anti-⁠Soviet opinions and discontent with the policy of the party and authorities. The priest answered that he did not admit guilt. The investigation closed the same day. On 11 February 1938 an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Archpriest Peter Sokolov was shot on 17 February 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo range.

He is commemorated on 17 February, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 11 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Novgorod and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.