Sergius Bukashkin

Holy Venerable Martyr Sergius Bukashkin was a hieromonk of the Chudov Monastery and then a village priest in the Volokolamsk district, and he was shot at Butovo on 7 March 1938.

He was born on 23 January 1884 in the village of Chertanovo in the Volokolamsk district, in the family of the peasant Basil Bukashkin, and at baptism he received the name John. At thirteen his parents gave him to the Chudov Monastery in Moscow, where he was received as a novice and served at the choir. Here he also finished the teachers' seminary, which gave him the right to teach in a primary school. On 14 June 1914 he was tonsured a monk with the name Sergius and appointed teacher at the monastery's novices' school. In 1916 he was moved to the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery in Moscow and ordained hierodeacon. In 1919 he was assigned to the church of the Transfiguration in Spas-⁠Ostashevo, and in 1930 he was ordained hieromonk for the same church. In 1935 he was awarded a golden pectoral cross, and in February 1937 he was moved to the church in Novo-⁠Alexandrovka, Shakhovskaya district.

In January 1938 NKVD investigators questioned the chairman and secretary of the village council, who said that the hieromonk had spoken before a crowd about the elections to the Supreme Soviet as a mere formality and about the power that had fallen upon the clergy. He was arrested on 16 February 1938 and held at Volokolamsk. The investigator ascribed to him discontent over the elections and the taxes, but the saint rejected every accusation and did not admit guilt. The inquiry closed on 18 February, and on 27 February an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was taken to Taganka, where on 2 March the prison photographer took a picture of him for the executioner. Hieromonk Sergius was shot on 7 March 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at Butovo.

He is commemorated on 7 March (a movable date) and, in the new style, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.