Mercurius of Brygyntsi

Venerable Mercurius of Brygyntsi (in the world Maxim Moiseevich Matviyenko, 1870 to 1956) was a monk of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, then, after the Lavra's closing, a village priest in the Chernihiv region, where he served ten years in the church of the Holy Trinity at Brygyntsi. He was honoured for his humble life and for healings that took place through his prayers. It must be said plainly that he was canonized in 2011 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, a body that the canonical Orthodox Churches did not recognize at that date. No canonization of him by any of the canonical Churches is known, so his case calls for a decision.

His life

He was born in 1870 in the village of Shchasnivka (today in the Bobrovytsia district, Chernihiv region), in a large and deeply believing family, one of six children. In youth he helped his parents with the farm and from early on was distinguished by piety. In mature age he came to the Kyiv Caves Lavra, where, for zeal in prayer, kindness, love and hard work, he was received into the brotherhood and tonsured a monk with the name Mercurius, in honour of Venerable Mercurius the Faster of the Far Caves. Soon he was ordained hierodeacon and later hieromonk.

In 1926 the Soviet power turned the Lavra into an "All-⁠Ukrainian museum town", and by 1930 the monastery was abolished. Hieromonk Mercurius was driven from the monastery with the other monks, lived a while at Kyiv in the homes of his spiritual children, then left for his native land, the Chernihiv region. So as not to harm his relatives he did not go to his parents' house at Shchasnivka but settled in the nearby village of Brygyntsi. The fine wooden church in the cemetery of Brygyntsi had been closed by the Soviets and turned into a tailor's workshop. But the "disobedient" people did not wish to work there or order clothes. The church was ordered torn down, and Mercurius found only the ruins.

At the end of 1942, when in the German occupation of Ukraine churches were being opened in numbers, Father Mercurius became rector of the local parish, serving first in the homes of the faithful. In 1946 the church of the Holy Trinity was consecrated and opened for the faithful, on the site of a Baroque stone church destroyed in the 1930s. The holy table of the church Father Mercurius made with his own hands. The church and the table have survived to this day. He became renowned for miracles and healings. Once a boy suffering from epilepsy was brought to him and the illness left through his prayers. "The father's faith and the mother's tears helped", he would say, humbly hiding the gift received from the Lord.

Trials and repose

For his zealous service and prayerful help to people he endured many troubles. People tell to this day of his wonderful deliverance from death. The village head, with two NKVD men, led the priest to a haystack in the field to kill him. Father Mercurius prayed and prepared to pass into eternity. When the order "fire" sounded, the weapon misfired. The second time it was the same. Then the executioners decided to let him go, thinking that, as he walked, they would shoot him in the back. But the third time too the weapon misfired. The venerable one remained unharmed and said only: "This time I was not to die".

In March 1949 he received a patriarchal diploma, signed by Patriarch Alexy, with a blessing for diligent labours to the glory of the Holy Church, and in the early 1950s he was raised to hegumen, as a hieromonk of the Chernihiv diocese. He fell asleep on 7 November 1956, aged 86, and was buried beside the altar of the church he had built, the Holy Trinity, in the cemetery of Brygyntsi. After his repose the faithful continued to honour him, coming to the grave. In the 2000s at least five cases of healing from illness, chiefly of the legs, were recorded in writing, after prayers at the grave of Hegumen Mercurius.

The canonization

On 21 October 2011 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, not recognized by the canonical Orthodox Churches, examined the request of Bishop Hilarion of Chernihiv and Nizhyn to number Hegumen Mercurius among the locally venerated saints. It blessed his canonization and his commemoration in the Chernihiv diocese on 24 November (7 December new style), the day on which the Church commemorates the Great Martyr Mercurius, the Martyr Mercurius of Smolensk and Venerable Mercurius the Faster of the Caves. The solemn glorification took place on 7 December 2011 in the cathedral of Saint Catherine at Chernihiv, led by Patriarch Filaret. The shrine with the relics is in the church of Saint Catherine at Chernihiv. On 20 October 2012 the Synod of the same Church numbered the locally venerated saint among the saints venerated throughout that Church. In icons he is shown with flowers in his hands.