Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr Nicholas Ryurikov
1884 — 1943
Also known as: протоиерей Николай Рюриков, Сщмч. Николай, пресвитер (†1943)
Archpriest of the Trinity Cathedral in Gorbatov, twice arrested for his sermons; died in a labour camp in the Komi region in 1943.
Hieromartyr Nicholas Ryurikov was born on 5 April 1884 in the village of Oselok, Makaryev district, Nizhny Novgorod province, into the family of the priest Vladimir Ryurikov. He graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary in 1905 and taught religion in parish schools.
In 1910 Bishop Joachim (Levitsky) ordained him priest; from October 1910 he served at the Trinity Cathedral in the town of Gorbatov, where he also ran the parish school, and he was later raised to the rank of archpriest.
In 1927 the OGPU arrested him over his sermons and charged him with "spreading counter-revolutionary rumours"; he was sentenced to three years of exile in Eastern Siberia. Afterwards he lived in Kozmodemyansk and from 1934 was rector of the church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Vladimirskoye. Arrested again on 29 September 1937, he denied the charges; an NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in labour camps. He was sent to Lokchimlag in the Komi region and died on 18 June 1943 in the Pezmog camp infirmary, buried in an unmarked grave.
He is commemorated on 5/18 June and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.