5 Russian priests of the XX century, canonized after death

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On January 9, 1920, in Voronezh, on the day of the mass execution of clergy, Archbishop Tikhon of Voronezh was killed. It is worth clarifying that the persecution of the ROC began even before the Bolsheviks came to power. The liberals from the Provisional Government anticipated the Bolsheviks in their attitude to religion and the Church, showing themselves to be enemies of Russian Orthodoxy. If in 1914 there were 54,174 Orthodox churches and 1,025 monasteries in the Russian Empire, then in 1987 only 6,893 churches and 15 monasteries remained in the USSR. In 1917-20 alone, more than 4.5 thousand priests were shot. Today is a story about priests who gave their lives for the faith.

Archpriest John Kochurov

Ioann Kochurov (in the world Ivan Aleksandrovich Kochurov) was born on July 13, 1871 in the Ryazan province into a large family of a rural priest. He graduated from the Dankov Theological School, the Ryazan Theological Seminary, the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, after graduation from which, in August 1895, he was ordained a priest and sent to missionary service in the Aleutian and Alaska dioceses. This was his long-standing desire. In the United States, he served until 1907, as the rector of St. Vladimir's Church in Chicago.

Returning to Russia, Ioann Kochurov became a supernumerary priest of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Narva, a priest of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Sillamäe, and at the same time he was a teacher of the law at Narva women's and men's gymnasiums. Since November 1916, Archpriest John Kochurov has been the second priest in the Catherine Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo.

At the end of September 1917, Tsarskoye Selo turned into a center of confrontation between the Cossack troops supporting the ousted head of the Provisional Government A. Kerensky and the Bolshevik Red Guard. October 30, 1917 Fr. John took part in the procession of the cross with special prayers for an end to internecine strife and called on the people to calm down. This happened during the shelling of Tsarskoye Selo. The next day, the Bolsheviks entered Tsarskoe Selo, and the arrests of priests began. Father John tried to protest, but he was beaten, taken to the Tsarskoye Selo airfield and shot in front of his son, a schoolboy. Parishioners buried Father John in the tomb under the Catherine Cathedral, which was blown up in 1939.

It is worth saying that the murder of Archpriest John Kochurov was one of the first in the mournful list of the destroyed church leaders. After that, arrests and killings followed almost non-stop.

Archbishop Tikhon IV of Voronezh

Archbishop Tikhon IV of Voronezh (in the world Nikanorov Vasily Varsonofievich) was born on January 30, 1855 in the Novgorod province in the family of a psalm reader. He received an excellent spiritual education, graduating from the Kirillov Theological School, the Novgorod Theological Seminary, and the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. At the age of 29, he became a monk at the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery with the name Tikhon, and was ordained a hieromonk. After another 4 years he was granted abbess. In December 1890, Tikhon was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and became abbot of the Novgorod Anthony Monastery, and in May 1913 he was awarded the rank of archbishop and transferred to Voronezh. Contemporaries spoke of him as "a kind man who spoke his sermons simply and easily."

Right Reverend Tikhon had to meet for the last time in the history of the city of Voronezh Emperor Nicholas II with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and daughters Olga and Tatiana. The monarchs then visited the Mitrofanovsky Annunciation Monastery, bowed to the relics of St. Mitrofan and toured hospitals for wounded soldiers.

Since the beginning of the First World War, Archbishop Tikhon has been active in social and church-charitable activities. He performed private and public services when seeing off conscripts, conducted memorial services for those killed on the battlefield. In all Voronezh churches, councils of trustees were opened, providing moral and material assistance to those in need, gifts were collected and sent to the army. In October 1914, Archbishop Tikhon blessed the opening of a 100-bed infirmary for the wounded in the Mitrofanovsky Monastery, as well as the opening of the Voronezh Diocesan Committee for the Arrangement of Refugees.

Archbishop Tikhon became one of the first clergymen who had to face the negative attitude of the new government towards the Church. The first time he was arrested and, accompanied by soldiers, was sent to Petrograd on June 8, 1917. On January 9, 1920, on the day of the mass execution of priests in Voronezh, Archbishop Tikhon was hanged at the Royal Doors of the Annunciation Cathedral. The highly esteemed martyr was buried in the crypt of the Annunciation Cathedral. In 1956, when the Mitrofanovsky monastery and crypt were destroyed, Tikhon's remains were reburied at the Kominternovsky cemetery in Voronezh, and in 1993 his remains were transferred to the necropolis of the Alekseevsky Akatov monastery. In August 2000, Archbishop Tikhon of the Russian Orthodox Church was glorified as a holy martyr.

Metropolitan of Kiev and Galician Vladimir

Metropolitan of Kiev and Galitsky Vladimir Bogoyavlensky (in the world Vasily Nikiforovich Bogoyavlensky) was born on January 1, 1848 in the Tambov province into the family of a village priest. He received his spiritual education first at a theological school and seminary in Tambov, and then at the Kiev Theological Academy. After graduating from the academy, Vladimir returned to Tambov, where he first taught at the seminary, and when he got married, he was ordained and became a parish priest. But his family happiness was short-lived. Several years later, Father Vasily's only child and his wife died. Having endured such a huge grief, the young priest takes monasticism with the name of Vladimir in one of the Tambov monasteries.

During his lifetime, Hieromartyr Vladimir was called the “All-Russian Metropolitan,” since he was the only hierarch who consistently occupied all the main metropolitan departments of the Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev.

In January 1918, the All-Ukrainian Church Council raised the question of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Metropolitan Vladimir defended the unity of the Russian Church. But the leader of the party of schismatics, Archbishop Alexy, who arbitrarily settled in the Lavra next to Metropolitan Vladimir, in every possible way incited the monks of the Lavra against the holy archimandrite.

On the afternoon of January 25, 1918, the Red Guards broke into the Metropolitan's chambers and searched. The monks began to complain that they wanted to establish order in the monastery, like the Reds - with councils and committees, but the Metropolitan would not allow it. In the evening, 5 armed soldiers came to the Metropolitan at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Vladimir was taken out of the Lavra through the All Saints Gate and brutally killed between the ramparts of the Old Pechersk Fortress, not far from Nikolskaya Street.

However, there is an opinion that the Bolsheviks did not take any part in this atrocity, but bandits invited by certain monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who had succumbed to Bolshevik propaganda and slandered the archpastor, killed the Metropolitan, as if he was "robbing" the Lavra, which received large incomes from the pilgrims.

On April 4, 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church ranked Metropolitan Vladimir (Epiphany) among the holy martyrs. His relics are in the Far Caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in the cave church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Arimandrid Varlaam

Arimandrid Varlaam (in the world Konoplev Vasily Efimovich) was born on April 18, 1858. The son of mining peasants. His family belonged to the Old Believers of the bespopov style. The path to Orthodoxy of Barlaam was not easy. “Lord, show me a miracle, resolve my doubts,” he asked in prayers, and Father Stephen Lukanin appeared in his life, who, with meekness and love, explained to Vasily his bewilderment, and his heart was at peace. October 17, 1893 at the Perm Cathedral, he received chrismation. Soon 19 people of his relatives joined the Church.

On November 6, 1893, he settled on White Mountain, and from that time on, those wishing to lead a monastic life began to flock to him. This place was as secluded as Trinity Church in Gergeti … He also became the first abbot of the Belogorsk St. Nicholas Monastery.

In October 1918, the Bolsheviks plundered the Belogorsk St. Nicholas Monastery. Archimandrite Varlaam was drowned in the Kama River in a rough linen pillowcase. The entire monastic complex underwent a barbaric defeat: the throne was desecrated, shrines, monastery workshops and a library were plundered. Some monks were shot, and some were thrown into a pit and covered with sewage. Archimandrite Varlaam is buried in the cemetery in Perm.

Bishop Theophanes

Bishop Theophan (in the world Ilminsky Sergei Petrovich) was born on September 26, 1867 in the Saratov province in the family of a church reader. He was left without a father early. He was brought up by his mother, a deeply religious person, and his uncle, the rural archpriest Demetrius. Sergey graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy, taught at the Saratov Diocesan School for Women. Only at the age of 32 was he ordained a priest. Contemporaries recalled that his pastoral address was always direct and uncompromising. Regarding the murder of Stolypin in Kiev, he said: ""

In September 1915, Father Feofan was elevated to the rank of archimandrite of the Solikamsk Holy Trinity Monastery. When in 1918 the new government became interested in the land, Bishop Theophan said that he was more afraid of the terrible Judgment and would not disclose information about the monastic possessions. Under the command of Vladyka, large processions of the cross were organized as protests against the persecution of the church and the robbery of monasteries.

In June 1918, Bishop Theophan took over the administration of the Perm diocese after the arrest and execution of the Hieromartyr Archbishop Andronik of Perm, but soon he himself was arrested. On December 11, 1918, in a thirty-degree frost, Bishop Theophan was repeatedly immersed in the ice hole of the Kama River. His body was covered with ice, but he was still alive. Then the executioners simply drowned him.

And further…

In 2013, the publishing house PSTGU released a book-album “Victims for the Faith and the Church of Christ. 1917-1937”, and on May 15 at the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church a meeting was held dedicated to the study and preservation of the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, organized by the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities.

Everyone who is interested in this topic, we invite you to find out interesting facts about church bells.