New martyr · 1863–1938
Nicholas Mezentsev
Hieromartyr Nicholas Mezentsev, Archpriest of Simferopol (1863–1938)
New Calendar February 1 Old Calendar February 14
Why they are a saint
Archpriest Nicholas Mezentsev served for decades in Simferopol in the Crimea. Imprisoned after the 1922 trial of the Crimean clergy and arrested again in 1937 on false charges, he refused to admit guilt and was shot on February 14, 1938. He is honoured as a hieromartyr among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
Life
Hieromartyr Nicholas Mezentsev was born on September 8, 1863, in the village of Krasnaya Slobodka in the Oryol province of Russia, the son of a church reader, Dimitry Mezentsev. He lost his mother at five and his father at twelve, and as an orphan of a clergy family he was educated in church schools at public expense.
He taught at the Tauride Theological Seminary in Simferopol in the Crimea, where Bishop Martinian ordained him priest and appointed him the seminary's confessor. From 1903 he served at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God at a Simferopol hospital and taught religion at a girls' school; he was later raised to the rank of archpriest.
After the Revolution he helped hide his son, a White Army officer, and his comrades; they were later caught in Sevastopol and shot. In 1922, after the seizure of church valuables, he was tried with Archbishop Nikodim (Krotkov) and most of the clergy of the diocese, and sentenced to three years in prison; he was released early. He then served at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul and, when the Renovationists took it over, at the Greek Holy Trinity Church in Simferopol, which he helped the Greek community reopen in 1934.
On December 15, 1937, he was arrested on false charges, including helping the Greek community and concealing church property. He refused to admit guilt. On February 14, 1938, an NKVD troika sentenced him to death, and he was shot. He is commemorated on February 1 (Old Calendar; February 14 civil), among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and the Synaxis of the Saints of the Crimea.
Sources: azbyka.ru. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Orthodox Christians usually take Hieromartyr Nicholas as a patron when they bear the name Nicholas at baptism, or were born or baptized near his feast on February 1 (February 14 civil, Old Calendar). As a martyr, he is also asked for courage and faithfulness under trial.
Prayer
O holy Nicholas Mezentsev, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.