Today the
Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of one of the early stars in the
pleiades of new martyrs and confessors of the Communist yoke, Metropolitan
Benjamin (Kazansky) of Petrograd and Gdovsk, together with Archimandrite
Sergei, Yuri, and John.
Hieromartyr
Benjamin was born Vasily Pavlovich Kazansky in 1873, in a village near
Kargopol, now of Archangelsk province, to the family of Priest Pavel and his
wife Maria Kazansky. He was raised in a spirit of piety, and loved to read the
Lives of the Saints, contemplating the struggles of the martyrs, and wishing
that he too could make that same sacrifice for Christ’s sake. Little could he
know during that peaceful time in a quiet village that such an opportunity
would indeed arise in his native Orthodox land.
Longing
to serve the Church, Vasily entered the Petrozavodsk Seminary and then the
Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. As a student, he participated actively in
the “Society for the spread of religious and moral enlightenment in the spirit
of the Orthodox Church,” and organized talks with workers. In 1895 he received
the monastic tonsure with the name Benjamin and was ordained a hierodeacon, and
the next year a hieromonk. After graduating from the Academy in 1897, Hieromonk
Benjamin was appointed teacher of Holy Scripture at the Riga Theological
Academy, then in 1898 the Inspector of the academy in the city of Kholm. A year
later he was made inspector of the Saint Petersburg Seminary. In 1902, after
being elevated to the rank of Archimandrite, he was appointed rector of the
Samara Seminary, and three years later of the Saint Petersburg Seminary.
The
scholarly yet pastoral hieromonk Benjamin was called to the hierarchical rank
on January 24, 1910, when he was consecrated bishop of Gdovsk, a vicariate of
Saint Petersburg, by other future martyrs and confessors such as Metropolitan
Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) and Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin) of Yaroslavl—the
future Patriarch of Russia.
Bishop
Benjamin became a zealous archpastor, often visiting the poorest and furthest
neighborhoods of Saint Petersburg, serving the peoples’ needs like a parish
priest, dressed simply in his ryassa with no outer signs of his episcopal rank.
He put great effort into saving women from a life of prostitution, preaching to
them in the “Society of the Most Pure Theotokos”. His sermons were very
effective, and many repented of their sins and changed their lives.
He was
always able to reach the hearts of simple folk, and his flock loved him for
this, calling him “our batiushka Benjamin”. His evangelical simplicity,
compassion, pastoral accessibility, sincere smile and quiet, clear voice
endeared him even to those of other faiths.
After the
revolution in February, 1917, Bishop Benjamin was chosen by the overwhelming
majority of clergy and laity at the diocesan council as Archbishop of Petrograd
and Ladoga, and then six months later as Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdovsk.
Right
after his election to the Saint Petersburg cathedra His Eminence Benjamin
announced: “I stand for the Church’s freedom. She should be alien to politics,
for in the past she suffered much from them. To place a new path upon the
Church now would be a great mistake. The most important task right now is to
build and improve our parish life.”
In those
confusing times it would have been hard to find a man more foreign to politics
that Metropolitan Benjamin. He put all his energy into his social programs, and
into defending the Orthodox people from the fierce persecutions now encroaching
upon them from enemies of the Church. In 1918, the new government published a
decree “On the separation of Church from the state and the schools from the
Church”, which was everywhere received as a signal to begin the destruction of
the Church and its leaders, and to plunder its property. A wave rolled over the
county leaving behind it closed church and monasteries, desecrated icons and
relics, arrested, tortured, exiled and executed bishops, priests, monks, nuns,
and laity. The Church was deprived of its clergy and any means of existence.
After the
civil war, in 1921, Russia was stricken by an unprecedented famine amidst the
general destruction, and this was used as an excuse to persecute and rob the
Church under the slogan, “the proletarian campaign on Church valuables”. In
Petrograd, they began this campaign in 1922. “We will give it over ourselves,”
said Met. Benjamin, blessing the churches to submit anything of value that was
not used in Divine Services to be used to help those in need.
But the
authorities were not satisfied with the Metropolitan’s voluntary charity,
because their aim was confiscation, and the declaration of Church property as
state property—whether or not it was sacred was of no concern to them. By this
time a schism had formed of renovationists calling themselves the “Living
Church”, and collaborating with the Communist authorities against those
faithful to the lawful Patriarch, Tikhon. Although initially there were no
arrests in connection with the people’s unrest over the sacrilege, on March 24,
1922, twelve of the schism’s organizers published an article in the Petrograd
Pravda accusing the lawful clergy of resisting the decree on confiscation and
participating in counter-revolutionary conspiracies. In 1922 Metropolitan
Benjamin was arrested, and on June 10 of the same year, 86 people were put on
trial.
At his
trial, Metropolitan Benjamin was as always simple, calm, and of pure conscience
concerning himself and the others. When he was faced with his sentence, he said
to the tribunal: “I do not know what sentence you will pass upon me—life or
death—yet whatever your pronouncement, I will raise my eyes upward with the
same reverence, make the sign of the Cross (here he crossed himself broadly)
and say, “Glory to Thee, O Lord God, for all things!”
On June
5, 1922 the tribunal pronounced his sentence, and on the night of August 12-13,
Metropolitan Benjamin along with Archimandrite Sergei (Shein), and laymen Yuri
Novitsky and Ivan Kovsharov were shot to death outside of Petrograd.
Hieromartyr
Archimandrite Sergei (in the world Vasily Pavlovich Shein) was born in 1866 in
the village of Kolpina, Tula Province. He had been a member of the State Duma
and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1917-1918, and assistant
chairman of the Society of unified Petrograd Orthodox parishes.
Martyr
Yuri (Yuri Petrovich Novitsky) was born in 1882 in Umani, Kiev Province. He was
a professor of criminal law in Petrograd University, and chairman of the
Society of unified Petrograd Orthodox parishes.
Martyr John
(Joan Mikhailovich Kovsharov) was born in Odessa. He was a lawyer, and gave
legal counsel to the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Petrograd.
The
memory of Holy Hieromartyrs Benjamin, Sergei, and martyrs Yuri and John is
honored in the feast of the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessers of Russia,
and separately on this day, July 31/August 13.
Source: http://orthochristian.com/81333.html
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