Nikolai Petrovich Orlov was born on 15 February 1881 in the village of Rybnitsy, Bolshaya Sol District of the Kostroma Governorate, into a priestly family. Several generations of the Orlovs — for more than a hundred years in total — baptized, married, and anointed almost the entire local population. The father of the holy martyr Nikolai, Archpriest Petr Guryevich, served for 44 years in the church of Rybnitsy.
After graduating from the Yaroslavl Theological Seminary, Nikolai received an assignment to the village of Petropavlovskoye, where he taught at the public school. In 1911 he was ordained priest and served in the church of his native village.
In the 1930s persecution began against Nikolai, and in order not to bring trouble upon his parishioners, with whom he lodged by turns, he asked the church warden to adapt a small annex by the church for living quarters, where he settled with his family.
The priest was repressed three times. The third arrest took place on 5 June 1937. He was charged with “participation in a counterrevolutionary group.” On 25 August 1937 a troika of the USSR NKVD sentenced him to the highest measure of punishment, and on 26 August he was executed by shooting.
By a decision of the 2000 Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Priest Nikolai Orlov was numbered among the holy martyrs.
