Timothy Izotov

Holy Hieromartyr Timothy Izotov, a priest, was born in 1875 in Simferopol, in Taurida province, in the family of the gardener Spiridon Izotov. He studied at the parish school. In 1909, at the age of 34, he became a psalm-⁠reader at the cathedral in Simferopol; in 1912, for his blameless life and zeal in service, he was ordained a deacon; in 1916 he was appointed to the church in Autka, at Yalta; and in 1921 to the church of All Saints in Simferopol.

In 1922 Deacon Timothy was arrested on the charge of resisting the confiscation of church valuables. For lack of evidence the case was closed and he was released. In 1928 he was ordained a priest for the church of the village of Novo-⁠Pavlovka, and in September 1936 he was transferred to the church of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates in Alushta, where he received the cross of confession.

In the winter of 1938 the authorities tried to split the community by persuading some to leave it, but the community did not break up and the church could not be closed. On 8 February 1938 Father Timothy was arrested, and the investigation was completed in three days. The investigator accused him of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation and claimed that the apartment of the church warden had served as a hidden church. The priest admitted that he had baptized children there but denied any other service and any agitation. He also admitted that on 19 January 1938 he had said from the ambo that some members of the "twenty" had left, that an evil spirit had entered them, but that the community would endure and must be brought back to strength. He admitted too that on 12 December 1937, election day, he had served the whole day, but out of duty, not to disrupt the elections.

He was held in the cell of the militia station in Alushta and accused of having formed a counter-⁠revolutionary group from the members of the "twenty" and of serving from six in the morning until late at night on election day. On 15 February 1938 an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was shot in Simferopol and buried in an unknown common grave.

He is commemorated on 16 February, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 2 December in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Crimean Metropolia, and on 28 December in the Synaxis of the Saints of Crimea, all in the new style.