Sergius of Sinozero

Venerable Martyr Sergius of Sinozero († 1612) was a hieromonk of the Sinozero Hermitage, in the Ustyuzhna district of northern Russia, and was killed by the Poles with the abbot Euphrosynus and other brothers on 20 March 1612. He was added among the locally venerated saints by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church of 12 March 2024, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda; the glorification was held on 31 March 2024 in the cathedral of Cherepovets. He is commemorated on 20 March (2 April).

Sergius, hieromonk, lived in the monastery founded in 1594 by Venerable Martyr Euphrosynus on the shore of Lake Sinitse, in the western part of the Ustyuzhna district, Novgorod province (today the Euphrosynus-⁠Sinozero Holy Trinity and Annunciation Hermitage, a monastery for men of the Cherepovets diocese). In 1612 many people were sheltering in the hermitage from Polish plunder. On 19 March Euphrosynus foretold that the Poles were coming to the hermitage and advised everyone to flee, but he himself stayed, saying that he "had come to die for Christ in this holy place." The other brothers who remained faithful to the end, among them the hieromonks Sergius and Abraamius, the schemamonk Ephraim and the novice Basil, shared Euphrosynus's fate and were killed as martyrs on 20 March 1612.

The place of their burial is unknown. Euphrosynus was glorified in 1912; the disciples who suffered with him are venerated in the Vologda diocese together with him. The Synod decided, on 12 March 2024, that their remains, if found, should be regarded as holy relics, and ordered that icons be painted.