Sergius Strelnikov

Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Strelnikov was a priest of the Russian Church. He was born on 24 September 1887 in the village of Shulka, Yaransk district, Vyatka province, and was shot on 8 August 1937 at Yoshkar-⁠Ola. He was included in 2005 in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. His commemoration is on 26 July by the old calendar (8 August by the new).

His father was the deacon Alexander Strelnikov, and his mother, Alexandra Nikolaevna, the daughter of a priest. His elder brother, Nikolai Alexandrovich, was also a priest. On 14 June 1911 he graduated from the Vyatka seminary. From 12 January 1912 he worked as a teacher in the schools of the Yaransk district. He was ordained deacon and, on 14 November 1912, priest, and appointed to the church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Kolyanur, Yaransk district. On 7 January 1916 he was moved to the Forerunner church in the village of Orshanka.

He engaged in enlightenment work. From 1912 to 1915 he taught religion at the Babino zemstvo school, in 1916 and 1917 at the Vidyakino zemstvo school, the Orshanka zemstvo school and the Orshanka higher primary school. In December 1912 he joined the Missionary Society, and in 1915 the Brotherhood of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker of the Vyatka diocese. On 7 March 1915 he was awarded the epigonation, and in 1919 the skufia. In 1933 he was raised to the rank of archpriest.

In 1936 the church in Orshanka was closed, and the building was given over as a grain store. Father Sergius served at home and, at the beginning of 1937, blessed the collecting of signatures for the opening of the church. On 26 July 1937 he was arrested on a charge of systematic counter-⁠revolutionary agitation and held in the lock-⁠up of the Orshanka police section, then sent to the prison in Yoshkar-⁠Ola. He was interrogated twice on 29 July 1937 and did not admit guilt. On 8 August 1937 he was sentenced to death by the three-⁠man tribunal of the political police of the Mari ASSR. The sentence was carried out the same day, at three in the afternoon. He was buried in a common grave in the Mendur cemetery near Yoshkar-⁠Ola.

His relics are in the house church in the building of the Yoshkar-⁠Ola diocesan administration and in the Forerunner church of the village of Orshanka. On 16 July 2005, by decision of the Most Holy Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Russian Church, on the proposal of the Yoshkar-⁠Ola diocese, Sergius Strelnikov was included in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.