Stephen Ermolin

Holy Hieromartyr Stephen Ermolin was a priest in Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic and was shot on 15 September 1937, in the fabricated case of the "Holy Druzhina". He was canonized in 2001.

He was born on 22 May 1891 in the village of Chasovo, into a peasant family. From childhood he worked on the farm and finished primary school. It is known, from unconfirmed data, that he took part in the First World War; from 1919 to 1922 he served in the Red Army, as platoon commander and assistant company commander. After demobilization he returned to peasant work. A deeply believing man, he resolved to devote himself to the service of the Lord and in 1926 received the priesthood. In the mid-⁠thirties he was priest of the church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Nizhny Konets in Syktyvkar, previously attached to the Trinity cathedral of Ust-⁠Sysolsk.

In 1936, after an anonymous denunciation, he was called to account by the NKVD for "speculation in church valuables", but was soon acquitted. Knowing that he was secretly watched, he kept warm relations with the exiled clergy. On 24 February 1937 he was arrested in Syktyvkar in the invented case of the "Holy Druzhina". On 13 September 1937 the troika attached to the NKVD of the Komi Republic sentenced him to death, under article 58, points 10 and 11, and the sentence was carried out on 15 September 1937 in Syktyvkar. The Holy Synod, by decision of 6 October 2001, numbered him among the saints and among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.

He is commemorated on 15 September and, in the new style, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors and on 11 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Komi.