He was one of a number of young educated priests who came to the United States in the late 1890s as missionaries among the émigrés from Carpathian Ruthenia and Galicia.

On August 27, 1895, he was ordained a priest at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg by Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) of the Diocese of the Aleutians and Alaska.

In the Chicago area he was active in the formation of the parishes in Madison, Streator, and Joliet (all in Illinois), as well as aiding the parishes in Buffalo, NY, and Hartshorne, OK. His presence at the consecration of an Episcopalian (aka Anglican) bishop long predates the anathema against ecumenism of 1982 and does not fall under it.

On the social side of parish life, he, with Alexis Toth, was influential in the establishment of a major Orthodox mutual aid society that provided support for the many newly arrived immigrants.

The people thronged to the churches where the clergy held prayer services and led processions throughout the town praying for peace.

By this act, Kochurov became the proto-hieromartyr of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church who suffered during the Bolshevik revolution and under the Soviet yoke.

In December 1994, Kochurov was glorified by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, in session at St. Daniel's Monastery, Moscow, Russia, as the first of the new martyrs of the 20th century.