Sergius Tikhomirov

Holy Martyr Sergius Tikhomirov was a merchant and a parishioner of the church of the Epiphany in Dorogomilovo, Moscow, and he was shot on 26 May 1922 in the trial of the Moscow priests connected with the seizure of church valuables.

In the spring of 1922 a new persecution of the Church began, which, according to the plan of the authorities, had to end in death sentences in order to intimidate clergy and believers. The pretext was resistance to the seizure of church valuables, whether any had been shown or not. Fifty-⁠four persons were arrested, among them the archpriests Basil Sokolov, Christopher Nadezhdin and Alexander Zaozersky, the hieromonk Macarius (Telegin) and the layman Sergius Tikhomirov.

Sergius was born in 1865 in Moscow, in the family of the second-⁠guild merchant Fyodor Dmitrievich Tikhomirov. He studied at the parish church school, then became a merchant like his father. In 1910 he moved with his wife from the Arbat to Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Street, opposite the church of the Epiphany, where he became a steady parishioner. In April 1922, at the seizure of valuables from that church, a great crowd gathered, and the report of the political police of 5 April described scenes of fury, but the next day the same body admitted that the picture had been exaggerated and the crowd had not been so large, and that the cadet reported killed had only been struck on the hand by a brick. Sergius had not gone out into the street in those days but had stayed in his shop opposite the church, yet he was arrested and taken to prison with the others. At the inquiry he was asked only one question, where he had taken part in beating the soldiers, and he answered that he had taken part in nothing. At the tribunal no soldier could be found to confirm the charge, and the judges did not dare to question him in public, for fear it would come out that he had no connection with the events. In his last word he said, "I cannot admit myself guilty; four agents took me, I was not there."

The trial before the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal took place from 26 April to 8 May 1922 in the hall of the Polytechnic Museum, and on 8 May the verdict was read: eleven people were sentenced to death, among them Sergius Tikhomirov. After the trial the condemned were taken to the single-⁠cell block of Butyrka prison. Patriarch Tikhon asked for their pardon on 9 May. The Politburo resolved to shorten the list, and on 18 May took the final decision on execution for five of them: Basil Sokolov, Christopher Nadezhdin, Alexander Zaozersky, the hieromonk Macarius and the layman Sergius Tikhomirov. On 26 May, seeing that the execution was delayed, the Politburo demanded that it be done without delay, and the sentence was carried out. The five received a martyr's end and were buried near the Kalitnikovskoe cemetery.

The saint is commemorated on 26 May and, in the new style, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.