Seraphim Kulakov

Holy Venerable Martyr Seraphim Kulakov, a hieromonk of the St Nicholas Monastery of Koryazhma, was shot on 30 September 1918, aged forty-⁠five, together with the archimandrites Paul (Moiseev) and Theodosius (Sobolev) and the hieromonk Nicodemus (Shchapkov).

Seraphim, in the world Nicholas, came to Koryazhma in 1904, at thirty, as a novice of the Prilutsky Monastery. He had been born in a peasant family of the Galich district, Kostroma province, of Jacob Kulakov. From childhood he attached himself to the church, learned there to read and write, and when a good voice was discovered in him, the obedience in the choir became his favourite occupation. At twenty-⁠four, with his father's blessing, he entered a monastery. From 1898 he worked at Prilutsky, a year later he was a novice, for five years he had obediences in the choir and in the cell, then he was moved to Koryazhma, where on 14 March 1904 he was tonsured a monk with the name Seraphim. After two years he was ordained hierodeacon, and on 1 July 1907 hieromonk. He gave himself wholly to the service of God and imagined no other path.

October 1917 disturbed the order of the monastery; from time to time a representative of the new power settled in it, called the commandant of the monastery. On 27 September 1918, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the monastery held a festal service; Archimandrite Paul, who understood that the troubled time would bring heavy trials, gave the word of instruction. The trials came. On 23 September 1918 a denunciation from an illiterate man reached the Cheka at Solvychegodsk, saying that in the forest, in hunters' huts, wealthy people lived, probably hidden bourgeois, and that in the Koryazhma Monastery, where he had spent the night, there were dubious types too. This was the reason for the authorities' journey. On 30 September the military commissar and members of the Cheka came to the monastery. The report of the commission says that the administration of the monastery resisted when asked for hiding places and money. In what the resistance consisted is not said. The commandant of the monastery interrogated the administration, but there are no interrogation records in the file; on a single sheet the commandant put the answers of all five accused: Archimandrite Paul denied everything, the hieromonk Nicodemus likewise, the hieromonk Seraphim said he had administered nothing, and Archimandrite Theodosius that he had not meddled in the monastery's affairs and lived apart. The Cheka put among the administration of the monastery Seraphim, who did not deal with the economy, and Archimandrite Theodosius, retired to rest, so as to be able to kill them. The sentence included Archimandrite Paul, Archimandrite Theodosius, the hieromonks Seraphim and Nicodemus, leaders of the hostile band, to be shot. The reason is not given; at that time clergy were often shot for not handing over church property, but the decoration of the churches, the vestments and the vessels did not interest the new power, only the money donated for the upkeep of the monastery. In the search it was not found, and the old men revealed nothing. The wish to break their monastic spirit was so great that, without waiting for confirmation of the decision, they were killed at once: at two in the afternoon, on 30 September 1918, on a deserted island of the river Vychegda, on the road from Koryazhma, were shot Archimandrite Theodosius, aged seventy-⁠six, Archimandrite Paul, sixty-⁠nine, the hieromonk Nicodemus, sixty-⁠four, and the hieromonk Seraphim, forty-⁠four.

He is commemorated on 30 September, on 1 November in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Arkhangelsk Metropolis and on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, in the new style.