Presbyter
Saint Hieromartyr Jacob was born in 1874 in the village of Timonovo, Dmitrov district of Moscow province. He graduated from a two-class school and in 1893 was appointed to serve as a psalmist in the Vvedenskaya Church of the Black Mud parish. In 1914, Metropolitan of Moscow Macarius ordained him to the deaconate, and in 1921, Bishop of Dmitrov Seraphim – to the priesthood in the same church.
In 1930, for failing to fulfill the task of grain procurement, the authorities arrested the priest and sentenced him to five years in a corrective labor camp. However, Father Jacob managed to prove his innocence, and after eleven months of imprisonment, he was released by the decision of the Moscow Regional Court.
On November 27, 1937, the authorities arrested the priest again, and he was imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow. False witnesses testified that believers from other parishes visited the priest at home and that he expressed hostile views towards the Soviet government.
Father Jacob was interrogated immediately after his arrest. He did not admit to being guilty of anti-Soviet activities and explained that choir members came to his home for rehearsals, but he did not know their names.
On December 1, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Father Jacob to execution. Hieromartyr Jacob Sokolov was shot on December 4, 1937, and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo shooting range near Moscow.
