Hilarion Pravdin

Holy Venerable Martyr Hilarion Pravdin, a novice, was numbered among the ten monks and novices of the Dormition monastery of Zilant, in Kazan, killed in 1918. In 1917 nine monks and novices lived in the Zilant monastery, on the edge of the city of Kazan, under the guidance of Archimandrite Sergius (Zaitsev).

When, in 1918, Kazan was freed by the White-⁠Czech troops under Colonel Kappel, two guns were set up on the hill before the entrance of the monastery, which fired at the Bolsheviks' positions. On 28 August (10 September on the new style) the Czechs withdrew and the Bolsheviks burst into the settlement where the monastery stood. Red Army soldiers lined up the whole brotherhood by the wall of the monastery yard and shot them in rifle volleys. Then they left the monastery and moved on to the city. Only the elderly hieromonk Joseph remained alive, who fell to the ground at the first volleys and was taken for dead. Getting out from under the bodies of his brethren, he went into the city and found shelter in the monastery of John the Baptist. Father Joseph, who was deafened and died a year after the shooting, told of the martyr's death of his brethren.

Shot were Archimandrite Sergius (Zaitsev; 1863-1918), the hieromonks Laurence (Nikitin; 1872-1918) and Seraphim (Kuzmin; 1870-1918), the hierodeacon Theodosius (Alexandrov; 1864-1918), the monks Leontius (Karyagin; 1870-1918) and Stephen (1918), the novices George (Timofeev; 1880-1918), Sergius (Galin; 1918), Hilarion (Pravdin; 1918) and John (Sretensky). The funeral service of the martyrs was performed by Archimandrite, later Hieromartyr Bishop, Joasaph (Udalov).

They were canonised as local saints of the Kazan diocese in 1998 and numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000, for veneration in the whole Church. They are commemorated on 10 September, on 17 October, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan, and on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (new style, the last being a movable day).