Benjamin Lukanin

Holy Hieromartyr Benjamin Lukanin was a priest of the Perm diocese, shot on 21 December 1918 in the village of Chyornoe, Okhansk district. He was entered among the saints by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. The Russian source does not give the day of his commemoration, saying only that the Church honours his memory each year; our record gives 7 June.

Family and school years

Benjamin Vasilievich Lukanin was born in the village of Yasyl, Osa district, Perm province. The sources do not agree on the year: the heading gives 1875, while the life gives the day 11 October 1873. His parents were Vasily Euthymievich, a psalmist (reader) at the church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Yasyl, and Eugenia Vasilievna, both from deacons' families. The village of Yasyl lies on the high, picturesque bank of the river Yasylka, above which the white stone church of the Protection, built in 1773, still stands.

In 1885, at ten, he entered the Perm theological school, where he stayed only briefly: on 22 August 1888, at his parents' request, he was withdrawn from the third class. He returned to Yasyl and from 1888 to 1891 served the choir obedience at the village church.

Services and teaching

On 22 March 1891 Bishop Vladimir (Nikolsky) of Perm and Solikamsk appointed him psalmist at the Holy Trinity church of the Polaznensky works. On 18 June 1893, after an examination, he was ordained to the stichar as reader by Bishop Peter (Losev). From 12 March 1894 he was teacher at the literacy school in Ust-⁠Polaznensky. In 1899 he was appointed psalmist at the church of Saint Philip in Bannoe, and in 1902 at the church of the Ascension in Ustinovo, where he was also singing teacher in the schools there. He completed in 1899 and 1901 singing courses organized by Alexander Dmitrievich Gorodtsov, a famous opera singer and choir conductor, under the provincial committee for popular temperance, receiving certificates showing very good progress in singing and harmonium. From September 1899 to August 1912 he was singing teacher at the Osa missionary school.

On 3 May 1902 he was transferred to the church of the Dormition in Okhansk, and on 21 October 1902 was ordained deacon by Bishop John (Alexeev), remaining also in the psalmist's post. From 1903 to 1904 he was singing teacher at the Okhansk girls' progymnasium. From 29 May 1904 he was deacon of the Nativity of the Mother of God church in Belyaevo, and from 27 January 1906 teacher of religion at the Ptashino zemstvo school. On 2 December 1907 Bishop Nikanor (Nadezhdin) ordained him priest, at the church of the Protection in Yasyl.

From 1907 until 1912 he was head and teacher of religion of the parish school at Mezhevka; in 1909 he was sent to the Kazan church in Mezhevka, then under construction, and in 1910 was confirmed as priest of the newly opened parish, chairman of the parish trusteeship and temperance society he organized at the church. From 1912 he also opened a Sunday school. On 20 February 1912 he was appointed priest of the church of the Prophet Elijah in Bedryazh, and on 14 March 1912, "for the benefit of the service", to the house of prayer of Saint Basil the Great in Ermievskoe. There he organized the trusteeship, the temperance society and a missionary circle, and was teacher of religion at the schools of Ermievsky and Kachkinsky. In a report of 17 March 1914 to the chief missionary of the diocese, Alexander Gavrilovich Kulyashev, he wrote that the circle meets on Sundays, that they had covered the teaching on tradition, the veneration of holy icons, the cross and the fasts, and he wished that the words of Scripture be written not on paper but in the human heart; he thanked for the Bibles bought and added that interest in reading the Word of God had greatly risen, even among the teachers.

In July 1914 he attended the missionary courses of the Brotherhood of Saint Stephen of Great Perm, and on the evening of 15 July the courses were visited by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova, who was then in the Perm diocese; she asked questions, listened to the students' answers and expressed her thanks. In August 1914 he finished the diocesan missionary courses with the note "excellent knowledge". Between 1914 and 1917 he was candidate for the investigator of the III Osa district. From 3 January 1916 he was warden of the church of the Prophet Elijah being built at Chyornoe, near Shabunichi station. On 17 October 1916 he was appointed rector of the Kazan church in Novo-⁠Painskoe, Okhansk district, and teacher of religion at the two-⁠class school. On 17 August 1917 he was re-⁠elected by the parishioners and confirmed, and from 1917 was chairman of the parish council and trusteeship of Novo-⁠Painskoe.

He received thanks from the diocesan school council (1896, 1911), an archpastoral blessing with a certificate (19 November 1898) and medals (for the 25 years of church schools, for the 300 years of the House of Romanov). His wife, Nadezhda Avksentievna, was born on 3 April 1875; their children: Vitaly (born 18 March 1901, a graduate of the Okhansk real school) and Zoya (born 9 November 1911).

His end

He was shot on 21 December 1918 in the village of Chyornoe by retreating units of the Red Army; his body was found in a ditch among sixteen corpses. The source gives no details of the circumstances of his death.