Day of the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov)
Description:
Hieromartyr Seraphim, Bishop of Sukhum
The Abkhazian Church celebrates the day of memory of the Hieromartyr Seraphim, Bishop of Sukhum.
The Hieromartyr Seraphim (in the world Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov) was born in a military family and belonged to an eminent noble family. After graduating from the Imperial Page Corps, he participated in the Balkan War of 1876-77. Upon returning from the front to St. Petersburg, he meets the righteous John of Kronstadt and becomes his spiritual child.
In 1879 she was combined with a pious Christian marriage with N. N. Dokhturova. In 1891 he retired from military service and in 1893, with the blessing of John of Kronstadt, took the priesthood. Serves in various temples of Moscow. In 1895 his wife died. At this time he began to work on the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery” and in 1898 took monastic tonsure with the name Seraphim. Soon he was appointed rector of the Suzdal Savior-Euphimievsky monastery. In 1903, on his proposal and with the active assistance of Emperor Nicholas II, St. Seraphim of Sarov was glorified. At the same time, he is an akathist to the monk.
In 1905 he was Bishop of Sukhum. From 1906 to 1912 he was Archbishop of Orel, Chisinau and Tver. He participated in the Local Council of 1917-18, where he headed the department “Monasteries and monasticism”.
In 1917, Vladyka Seraphim was expelled by the renovationists from his pulpit. Patriarch Tikhon appointed him to Warsaw, but he never arrived at the place of service due to the fighting there. In 1921, already in the rank of Metropolitan exiled to the Arkhangelsk region. For several years he lived in the Resurrection Fedorovsky monastery near Shuya.
In 1928 he was returned to the affairs of the Church and appointed to the Leningrad Cathedral. In 1933 he was dismissed and lived in Moscow for the last few years. In 1937 he was arrested and taken on a stretcher to Taganskaya Prison. On December 11 of the same year he was shot at a training ground in Butovo near Moscow. Vladyka painted icons. The wonderful image of the Savior of his work is in the Moscow church of Elijah the prophet.