Sergius Tikhomirov

Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Tikhomirov was a priest and spiritual father of the intelligentsia in Petrograd, a steadfast confessor in the face of atheism, and he was shot on 21 August 1930.

He was ordained priest in Saint Petersburg in 1891. He was rector of the church of the Presentation of the Mother of God in the Temple on Vvedenskaya Street, and after its destruction he served at the church of Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, at the home for the blind. After that church was taken by the "Living Church", he was second priest at the church of Saint Alexis, the man of God. People honoured him deeply; many professors of Petrograd University and other higher schools were his spiritual children. He was an ascetic, a wonderful preacher and a great admirer of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). Though he allowed no trace of self-⁠justification in himself, he was full of tenderness, attention and love toward anyone in whom he saw a hint of discouragement or despair.

After the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) in 1927 he at once joined the group of protesters and reproached the betrayal of Metropolitan Sergius and his associates. In the last period before his arrest he served at the cathedral of the "Josephites", that is, the church of the Resurrection on the Blood. In November 1929 he was arrested. In prison he showed extraordinary courage and fearlessness: he denounced atheism despite threats and beatings. He was shot on 21 August 1930. He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on 11 March 2020 by decision of the Holy Synod.

He is commemorated on 21 August and, in the new style, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Saint Petersburg Metropolis and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.