Konstantin Semernikov

Konstantin Semernikov was a Russian hieroschemamonk, born in 1842 in the stanitsa of Kochetovskaya, Don region, from a Cossack family, abbot of the cell of St John Chrysostom of Iviron Monastery. He reposed on 26 August 1913. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Konon Vukolevich in the world, he served twenty years in the army, from 1861 to 1881, took part in suppressing the Polish uprising of 1863 and in the Russo-⁠Turkish war of 1877-1878; he was among the brave men who swam their horses across a flood fourteen versts wide. After the war, state service no longer attracted him; he went to Athos and was tonsured at the cell of Sts Peter and Onuphrius of Iviron. In 1887 he became abbot of the cell of St John Chrysostom of the same monastery. In April 1906 he was received in audience by the Tsar and Tsarina at Tsarskoe Selo. In 1909 he took part, as a delegate with consultative vote, in the first monastic congress in Russia. He died on 26 August 1913 in the hospital of the Skete of St Andrew, and the great bell of the skete tolled for him. He published a book describing his deeds for faith, tsar and fatherland, and in 1905-1906 wrote letters to the abbot Misail and Father Agathodorus with detailed accounts.