Sergius Mefodiev

Holy Martyr Sergius Mefodiev was one of the faithful killed at Shuya in Vladimir province on 15 March 1922, when the crowd tried to defend the church against the seizure of church valuables.

In 1922 Soviet power decided to take church valuables under the pretext of helping those struck by famine. Patriarch Tikhon called the faithful to give for the starving, but rejected the forcible taking of consecrated objects. Among the first victims of the campaign were clergy and laymen of the town of Shuya and of Palekh: Archpriest Paul Svetozarov, the priest John Rozhdestvensky, Peter Yazykov, Nicholas Malkov, Auxentius Kalashnikov, Sergius Mefodiev and the maiden Anastasia.

On Wednesday 15 March crowds gathered from morning, mostly women, in the square of the Resurrection cathedral. The militia tried to disperse the crowd with whips, soldiers came, then vehicles with machine guns, and shooting began, first over their heads and then into the crowd. The first killed was the parishioner Nicholas Malkov, who had cried out, "Orthodox, stand for the faith." The second was the maiden Anastasia, who was on her way to the factory and stopped on the cathedral steps. Auxentius Kalashnikov and Sergius Mefodiev were also killed. Twenty-⁠two of the faithful were hurt, four of them killed. That day the seizure did not take place. Nothing more is recorded of the life of Sergius Mefodiev.

He is commemorated, in the new style, on 10 May, on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Ivanovo Metropolis and on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.