Veniamin

Veniamin, in the world Vasily Pavlovich Kazansky, was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov during the Russian Revolution and the first years of Soviet rule. He was born on 17 April 1873 in the Nimensky pogost of Kargopol uyezd, Olonets Governorate, in the north of the Russian Empire, the son of a parish priest. He studied at the Olonets Theological Seminary and then at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, graduating in 1897. While still a student he was tonsured a monk in 1895, receiving the name Veniamin, and was ordained hierodeacon and hieromonk. He then served in teaching and administrative posts at church schools, including the theological seminaries of Riga and Kholm and institutions in Saint Petersburg. In 1910 he became rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary and was consecrated Bishop of Gdov, a vicar of the Saint Petersburg diocese. As vicar bishop he was known for a simple manner of life, frequent contact with ordinary parishioners, and pastoral visits in working-class districts of the capital.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1917, a diocesan assembly of clergy and laity in Petrograd elected him ruling hierarch, an unusual popular election rather than imperial nomination. He was raised to archbishop and then metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov. During the civil war, famine, and the first Soviet anti-religious campaigns he sought to keep diocesan life functioning and to avoid partisan politics, continuing public worship and ordinations while attempting to protect church property and clergy. His standing among the faithful of Petrograd remained high, which later made him a conspicuous target.

In 1922 the Soviet authorities ordered the confiscation of church valuables, presenting the measure as famine relief. Metropolitan Veniamin stated that non-consecrated precious objects might be given, but he refused the surrender of consecrated liturgical vessels, which he regarded as sacrilege. Negotiations failed, and clergy linked to the state-supported Renovationist (Living Church) schism accused him of counter-revolutionary agitation. He was arrested in the spring of 1922 and tried in Petrograd with other clergy and laymen. The proceedings are generally treated as a show trial. Death sentences were imposed on several defendants; clemency was refused for Veniamin and three companions.

On the night of 12–13 August 1922 he was shot, together with Archimandrite Sergius (Shein), the lawyer Yury Petrovich Novitsky, and Ivan Mikhailovich Kovsharov. The place of execution and burial were concealed; the grave has not been identified with certainty. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia glorified him as a hieromartyr in 1981 among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The Moscow Patriarchate did likewise in 1992 under Patriarch Alexy II. He is commemorated on 13 August (31 July in the Julian calendar) and on the Sunday of the New Martyrs and Confessors. His memory is that of a pastor who held to the liturgical and canonical tradition of the Church under revolutionary violence and state persecution.