On September 18 (September 5 on the Julian Calendar) we commemorate St Evfimy Kochev, New Martyr of the Communist Yoke, who reposed in the Lord in 1937.
Evfimy Petrovich Kochev was born in 1867 in the village of Vylgort, Ust-Sysolsky district, Vologda province, now Vylgort, Syktyvdinsky district, Komi Republic.
He came from a Komi peasant family and, having completed a 3-year village school, spoke Russian well and wrote competently. Despite the persecution of believers, the future martyr actively participated in the church life of the village of Vilgort, and he made large donations to the local church dedicated to the Meeting of the Lord (Sreteniya Gospodnya).
In 1936, he was elected church warden and in June 1937, when the authorities decided to close the Sretenskaya Church, he went from house to house, collecting signatures in defense of the church. On September 13, NKVD officers arrived in Vylgort, but Evfimy Petrovich refused to hand over the keys to the church and tried to gather people to prevent an inventory of the church property.
He was immediately detained (the arrest was formalized on September 14) and placed in the Syktyvkar prison. During interrogation, he confirmed that as a church warden he defended the church, rejecting accusations of "active counterrevolutionary activity." On September 16, Evfimy Petrovich Kochev was sentenced to capital punishment by a special troika of the NKVD of the Komi ASSR, and was shot on September 18. The martyr was buried in an unmarked grave.
By the appointment of God, the holy martyr's name was included in the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the decision of the Holy Synod on October 6, 2001.
