Sergius Rufitsky

Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Rufitsky was archpriest of the church of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God in the village of Ivanovskoe, Vladimir province, and was shot at Butovo on 27 November 1937 together with the psalm-⁠reader Dimitri Rudakov.

He was born on 6 August 1884 in the village of Yeltsino, Vladimir province, in the family of the priest Michael Ivanovich Rufitsky, who served at the church of the Tikhvin icon in the village of Ivanovo. All four sons of Father Michael finished the school and the seminary of Vladimir, became priests and in Soviet times received a martyr's death. He finished the seminary in 1904, was ordained in 1907 and sent to the church in the village of Sedikovo, Kovrov district. His brother-⁠in-⁠law, the parish priest at Ivanovo, died, and from 1919 until his arrest in 1937 Father Sergius served at the church of the Tikhvin icon in Ivanovskoe. He was modest, hardworking and kind, took up gardening and beekeeping, loved children, and his children and grandchildren grew up believers and diligent.

Around 1930 the authorities demanded of all the servers of the church that they publicly renounce the faith. Father Sergius and the psalm-⁠reader Dimitri Ivanovich Rudakov refused outright, and only the deacon renounced. The Rudakov family was dispossessed and driven from their house, and Dimitri was sentenced to three years, but Father Sergius helped the family in every way he could. Through his wife's appeal the sentence was cancelled, and the psalm-⁠reader came home after a year and a half and served again. The persecution drew the two closer, and their prayer grew more gathered in the last years. In 1933-1934 the bells were thrown down from the bell tower; the great bell fell without breaking and was struck with its own clapper; Father Sergius at once began repairs on the tower.

They were arrested on the evening of 17 November 1937, after the vigil. Witnesses say that before getting into the van they crossed themselves toward the church and bowed to the villagers. They were held at Butyrka and then at Taganka. At the single interrogation, on 19 November, the investigator sought to obtain a confession of anti-⁠Soviet agitation, but Father Sergius rejected the false charges, and the psalm-⁠reader did the same. The NKVD troika condemned them to death on 21 November, and on 27 November 1937 they were shot and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo range. Father Sergius was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on 17 August 2004 by decision of the Holy Synod.

He is commemorated on 27 November and, in the new style, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 6 July in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.