Demetrius Dobroserdov

Saint Demetrius (in the world Ivan Ivanovich Dobroserdov, 1865-1937), hieromartyr, was Archbishop of Mozhaisk, vicar of the Moscow diocese, a tried preacher, an opponent of the Renovationists and a martyr, shot at the Butovo firing range on 21 October 1937 together with eight other believers. He was glorified in August 2000. He is commemorated on 21 October (8 October by the old calendar).

Youth and monastic life

He was born on 22 January 1865 in the village of Pakhotny Ugol, Tambov district, in the family of a priest. He graduated from the Tambov seminary in 1885 and the Moscow Theological Academy in 1898, as candidate of theology. Between 1885 and 1889 he was a teacher in a rural school, then from 1889 priest of the church of Saint Nicholas at Mamontovo and teacher of religion at the parish school. After his wife and children died, he left for Moscow, where from 1898 he was teacher of religion at the Fourth Gymnasium and rector of the gymnasium church. In 1908 he was tonsured a monk, raised to archimandrite and appointed synodal sacristan and rector of the church of the Twelve Apostles in the Kremlin.

Bishop

On 18 May 1914 he was consecrated in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow Bishop of Mozhaisk, vicar of the Moscow diocese, by Metropolitan Macarius and six other hierarchs. He directed theological pedagogical courses in Moscow and guided the publication of the scientific and illustrated description of the patriarchal sacristy. From 1917 he was abbot of the Savvino-⁠Storozhevsky Monastery, and from 1918 Bishop of Dmitrov, vicar of Moscow. In 1921 he was appointed Bishop of Stavropol, but had to leave under pressure from the Renovationists, supported by the authorities. In 1923 he was for a time Bishop of Stavropol, then of Baku, then, appointed by Patriarch Tikhon, Bishop of Kozlov, vicar of the Tambov diocese, and its temporary administrator. He was an active opponent of the Renovationists: all the churches of the city but one returned to the Patriarchal Church, and the OGPU noted that the Tikhonite movement in Kozlov was growing not by the day but by the hour. In 1925 he was arrested and had to leave the Tambov diocese, lived in Moscow and served in the churches of Moscow and its surroundings, for a time at Sochi.

In 1926 he was appointed archbishop of the Don, after Metropolitan Mitrofan's lapse into the Gregorian schism, but apparently stayed in Moscow. In the same year Evgeny Tuchkov of the OGPU demanded that he leave Moscow, and he moved to Pyatigorsk, where in 1927 Metropolitan Sergius established a new diocese and appointed him ruling bishop. He served at the church of Saint Panteleimon in Kislovodsk. On 31 December 1929 he was appointed Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich, in 1932 he was twice retired, and in 1933 he was Archbishop of Kaluga and Borovsk. From 23 March 1934 he was Archbishop of Mozhaisk, vicar of Moscow, and lived in a watchman's hut at the church of the Prophet Elijah on Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya street.

Martyrdom

On 29 September 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Butyrka, accused of anti-⁠Soviet agitation: he was said to have claimed that in the USSR there was persecution of religion and clergy and to have spread rumours about the shooting of Metropolitan Peter. He did not admit guilt. Arrested with him were Archimandrite Ambrose Astakhov, Abbot Pachomius Turkevich, Deacon Ivan Khrenov, the monk Barlaam, the nun Tatiana, Nikolai Rein, Maria Volnukhina and Nadezhda Azhgerevich. None admitted guilt. On 17 October all, apart from the monk Barlaam, sentenced to ten years and dead soon after in camp, were sentenced to death. On 21 October 1937 Archbishop Demetrius was shot at Butovo with all of them and buried in an unknown common grave. The Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000 numbered him among the saints, together with those condemned with him.