Philaret Velikanov

Holy Hieromartyr Philaret Velikanov, a priest, was born on 14 May 1873 in the town of Verkhny Lomov, in a deacon's family, and died in prison at Kazan on 24 October 1918, after being arrested on false charges.

His name was Philaret Ioannovich Velikanov. He finished the Penza theological seminary and in 1891 was appointed psalm reader at the cathedral of Nizhny Lomov. From 1895 he was teacher at the Sunday school there, but, feeling in himself the call to serve the Church, he asked to be appointed to a deacon and teacher's place in the village of Surkino and was ordained deacon in 1896 by Bishop Paul of Penza. In 1897 he was moved to the village of Bolshoi Azyas, and in 1901 he was appointed steward of the theological school at Krasnoslobodsk. In 1904 he was deacon in the village of Obrochnoe, then steward of the Tikhonov theological school in Penza, and from 1909 steward of the Penza seminary. On 30 October 1916 he was ordained priest by Archbishop Vladimir of Penza, and in the same year he was moved as steward of the Kazan Theological Academy.

Father Philaret received the February and October revolutions as terrible and unjust events, but he put himself wholly in the will of God and continued his ministry despite the terror drawing near. On 10 October new style 1918, the chairman of the Cheka for the struggle against counterrevolution on the Czechoslovak front, Latsis, signed order no. 343 for the search and arrest of the priest Philaret Velikanov. The next day he was shown the testimony of a twenty-⁠one-⁠year-⁠old man and of a platoon commander of the Cheka, who claimed that during the Czechoslovak revolt Velikanov, armed, had walked through the Academy quarter demanding the shooting of hidden communists. The first one's testimony could have been confirmed by a woman, but she was no longer in the city, and the other witness's testimony was refuted by a fellow villager who had sheltered the hidden Chekist and who said that during the inspection of the lodgings of the Academy's staff Velikanov had not been armed and had threatened no one with arrest or shooting.

The priest could not understand how he could have demanded the shooting of people he had never laid eyes on, and he knew himself guilty of nothing, so he did not flee Kazan or hide. The martyr's condition in prison was very hard, as is seen from his letters to friends, but it is precisely in them that his truly Orthodox soul is revealed. He died in prison on 24 October 1918. In the record of the Kazan Theological Academy it was then noted that the rector announced before the session the sudden death of the steward of the Academy, the priest Philaret Ioannovich Velikanov.

In the year 2000, by decision of the Jubilee Council of Bishops, Father Philaret Velikanov was numbered among the saints of all Russia, among the other New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. He is commemorated on 24 October, the day of his repose, and on the day when the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia is celebrated. The Azbyka page also gives the days 12 June and 17 October.