Seraphim Kuzmin

Holy Venerable Martyr Seraphim Kuzmin, a hieromonk of the Dormition Monastery of Zilant in Kazan, was born in 1870 and was shot in 1918, together with its abbot, Archimandrite Sergius (Zaitsev), and eight other brothers.

In 1917 in the Zilant Monastery, on the edge of Kazan, nine monks and novices lived under the guidance of Archimandrite Sergius. When in 1918 Kazan was freed by the White-⁠Czech troops of Colonel Kappel, two guns were set on the hill in front of the monastery, firing at the positions of the Bolsheviks. On 28 August (10 September in the new style) the Czechs retreated and the Bolsheviks burst into the settlement where the monastery stood. The Red soldiers lined up the whole brotherhood by the wall of the monastery yard and shot them in volleys; then they left the monastery and moved toward the city.

Only the aged hieromonk Joseph remained alive, who fell to the ground at the first volleys and was taken for dead. Getting out from under the bodies of his brothers, he went into the city and found shelter at the monastery of St John the Baptist. Father Joseph, deafened and dying a year after that shooting, told of the martyr's death of his brothers. Shot were Archimandrite Sergius (Zaitsev, 1863-1918), the hieromonk Laurence (Nikitin, 1872-1918), the hieromonk Seraphim (Kuzmin, 1870-1918), the hierodeacon Theodosius (Alexandrov, 1864-1918), the monk Leontius (Karyagin, 1870-1918), the monk Stephen (1918), the novice George (Timofeev, 1880-1918), the novice Sergius (Galin, 1918), the novice Hilarion (Pravdin, 1918) and the novice John (Sretensky, 1918). The funeral service and burial of the martyrs were performed by Archimandrite (later bishop and hieromartyr) Joasaph (Udalov).

They were canonized in 1998 as locally venerated saints of the Kazan diocese and numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in August 2000. St Seraphim is commemorated on 10 September (28 August in the old style), on 17 October in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan and on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, in the new style.