KOCHUROV, JOHN

KOCHUROV, JOHN, priest, martyr (13 June 1871-November/December 1917). Serving in America from 1895 to 1907, he is well-known for his exemplary labors as rector and builder of Chicago’s Holy Trinity Cathedral (the only Louis Sullivan church in existence) which was consecrated in 1903 by Bishop Tikhon Belavin (q.v.). He established other midwestern parishes with Frs. Hotovitzky and Toth, and was responsible for the return of many Uniates (qq.v.) to Orthodoxy. On returning to Russia he served in the St. Petersburg Diocese and was at Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin) at the outbreak of the 1917 Revolution. There he was attacked and killed, and was the first clergyman martyred during the Revolution. [At the time of this printing he is being considered for canonization by the Russian Church and his full biography is not yet available.]