Porphyry Gulevich

Saint Porphyry the Hieromartyr (born Polycarp Vasilievich Gulevich, 1864 to 1937) was Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea, a priest's son from Podolia, a widower who became a monk and bishop, steadfast in loyalty to Patriarch Tikhon and against the Renovationists. Arrested three times, he was sentenced to death in December 1937 and shot in Kazakhstan. The Russian Church canonized him in 2000 among the New Martyrs and Confessors.

The priest of Podolia

He was born on 26 February 1864 in the village of Tokarevka (Ukrainian Tokarivka), Litin district, Podolia province, into a priest's family. In 1885 he graduated from the Podolia Theological Seminary and on 22 October 1886 he was ordained priest. Between 1914 and 1928 he was dean and rector of the cathedral in the town of Olgopol, where he for a time taught the Law of God at the local gymnasium. He became a widower.

He stood against the Renovationist movement: in sermons he openly denounced its representatives, and among his flock he spread leaflets urging them to remain faithful to Patriarch Tikhon. He enjoyed authority among the faithful, and the Ukrainian Orthodox bishops considered his consecration as bishop from 1925. He took part in secret work organizing in Podolia groups of clergy and faithful that would not be under the control of the authorities. In 1927 he received monastic tonsure. He was critical of the decision of the Deputy Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), to abolish the commemoration of all diocesan bishops who were in camps and exile, saying: "One cannot renounce the exiled bishops, it would be like renouncing ourselves".

Bishop

On 25 June 1928 he was appointed Bishop of Krivoi Rog, vicar of the diocese of Dnepropetrovsk. He served often and always preached, visiting the parishes of the diocese actively. On 5 September 1930 he became Bishop of Zinovievsk, vicar of the diocese of Odessa, and on 11 September 1931 Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea.

He was loved by his flock. He continued to preach much, speaking among other things of the famine then raging in Ukraine, spent much time with the faithful and served regularly in various churches of the diocese. He opposed Renovationism strongly, which brought threats from them: the Renovationist Metropolitan of Crimea, Hierotheus (Pomerantsev), declared from the pulpit that he would have Bishop Porphyry arrested. He urged the Orthodox to pray for "the bishops, priests, monks and laity exiled and imprisoned, who languish innocently in exile". He criticized the actions of local authorities who supported the Renovationists and broke even Soviet law in persecuting the Orthodox Church. On this he circulated a letter in which, at the same time, he exhorted the faithful to endure to the end all the humiliations and oppressions, despite the lawlessness evident to all. In legal matters the bishop was advised by a former sworn attorney, Anatoly Kordi, who was later arrested and shot, never having admitted guilt of counter-⁠revolutionary activity.

In 1933 he was arrested and spent two months in prison, then was released. In 1934 he supported the elevation of the Deputy Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), to the dignity of Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, sending him a telegram: "I bow to the ground before His Beatitude. Bishop Porphyry".

Arrests and death

On 9 October 1936 he was arrested again, accused among other things of blessing the clergy to pray for the condemned, of encouraging "the illegal activity of certain underground monastic organizations", and of "showing excessive zeal in the struggle against the Renovationists". He spent four months in the prison at Simferopol and did not admit guilt. On 3 January 1937 he was sentenced to five years of administrative exile in Kazakhstan. He served his exile at the station of Ush-⁠Tobe, Karatal district, Taldy-⁠Kurgan region, together with Bishop Macarius (Karmazin) of Ekaterinoslav, who had been there since 1935. At times they secretly celebrated the Divine Liturgy at home.

On 20 November 1937 Bishop Porphyry and Bishop Macarius were arrested, accused of having "conducted anti-⁠Soviet propaganda and discredited Soviet power, and kept contact with counter-⁠revolutionary elements, systematically receiving material help from them". They too did not admit guilt. On 1 December 1937 a troika of the NKVD of the Alma-⁠Ata region sentenced to death Bishop Porphyry, Bishop Macarius and Raisa Alexandrovna Rzhevskaya, Bishop Macarius's cousin. The Russian source says only that he was shot at the NKVD range of Zhanalyk, 40 km from Alma-⁠Ata, and buried there; the Ukrainian source states that the sentence was carried out the next day, 2 December 1937 (19 November by the old calendar, the day on which the calendar commemorates him).

Canonization and veneration

He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. At the end of 2013 the place of his burial was found; in that cemetery the bodies of 4,500 victims of the Great Terror lie in mass graves. On 1 April 2015, with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by Metropolitan Onuphrius of Kyiv, the commemoration of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia Land was established, and among fifteen ascetics connected with the Vinnytsia region the Hieromartyr Porphyry, Bishop of Simferopol, was included. The Synaxis is kept on 14 September (new style). In Krivoi Rog the right-⁠hand side chapel of the Transfiguration Cathedral (Krivoi Rog diocese) was consecrated in his honor, and on 14 July 2013, on the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', a monument to the saints Onuphrius (Gagalyuk) and Porphyry (Gulevich) was unveiled in front of the cathedral, the work of the sculptor V. I. Tokar.