Saint Benjamin of Petrograd

Saint Benjamin of Petrograd was born Vasily Pavlovich Kazansky in 1873 in the village of Nimenskoye (Nimensky pogost) in Kargopol Uyezd, Olonets Governorate, in the Russian Empire, the son of a parish priest. He was educated at the Petrozavodsk Theological Seminary and then at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, completing his studies in the late nineteenth century. While still an academy student he was tonsured a monk with the name Veniamin (Benjamin) and ordained, thereby entering the celibate black clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church. After graduation he taught and served as an inspector and later rector at theological seminaries, including work in the western provinces of the empire and, subsequently, as rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary. In 1910 he was consecrated Bishop of Gdov, a vicar of the Saint Petersburg diocese, and became known for straightforward preaching and pastoral accessibility rather than for court or synodal politics.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Metropolitan Pitirim of Petrograd was removed from office. The clergy and laity of the diocese then elected Benjamin as their ruling hierarch, one of the early instances of such an election in the Russian Church that year. He was confirmed in office and soon raised to the rank of metropolitan, taking the title Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov. He led the see through the October Revolution, the Civil War, and the first years of Soviet power. He generally avoided partisan political alignment, concentrated on liturgical life, charity, and the care of parishes, and remained widely popular among ordinary believers in the former capital. When higher theological schools were disrupted, he supported continued theological instruction in Petrograd as circumstances allowed.

In 1922 the Soviet government began a nationwide confiscation of church valuables, publicly justified as relief for famine victims. Metropolitan Benjamin initially sought a negotiated arrangement that would permit the surrender of non-consecrated precious metals while protecting vessels used in the liturgy. Relations with the authorities collapsed as the state-backed Renovationist (Living Church) movement moved to seize church administration and as resistance to the confiscations was treated as counter-revolutionary crime. In the spring of 1922 he was arrested. In June–July 1922 he was the principal defendant in a public trial in Petrograd, together with other clergy and laymen, charged with organizing opposition to the seizures. He conducted himself with composure, accepted responsibility as diocesan bishop, and asked that subordinate clergy and laity not be punished in his place. The court condemned him to death.

On the night of 12–13 August 1922 Metropolitan Benjamin was shot by firing squad on the outskirts of Petrograd, together with Archimandrite Sergius (Shein) and the laymen Yury Novitsky and Ivan Kovsharov. Their burial was carried out in secret. He was thereafter venerated as a hieromartyr among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia glorified him in 1981; the Moscow Patriarchate canonized him in 1992. His principal feast is 13 August, the date of his martyrdom, and he is also commemorated with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.