Sergius Uvitsky

Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Uvitsky was an archpriest and former seminary teacher, and he died in a camp, at the building of the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal, on 12 March 1932.

He was born in 1881 in the village of Khlebnikovo, Vyatka province, in the family of a teacher who later became a priest. He studied at the Kazan Theological Academy and then taught at the Mogilev Seminary. On 1 August 1908 he was ordained priest. He was first arrested in 1920 and sentenced to indefinite confinement in a camp, with forced labour, but after some years was freed by an amnesty and went on with his ministry. In 1925 he was raised to archpriest. Meanwhile denunciations reached the OGPU: it was said that his sermons, given at every service for a whole hour, compared the Gospel with life today and were therefore anti-⁠Soviet. In the inquiry he explained that he had preached on the loss of Christian morals, on the breakdown of the family, the disrespect of children, the lightness toward chastity and marriage and the neglect of human dignity, on the growing hardship of life, illnesses and want, wars and enmities, calling the faithful to love, reconciliation and forgiveness and to the remembrance of their responsibility before God at the Last Judgment. He was sentenced to five years in a camp and in 1931 was moved to Belbaltlag, on the building of the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal. His wife obtained a visit of two hours; walking along the barbed wire, she was stopped by an old man and barely recognized Father Sergius: he was swollen, grey, and could scarcely move. It was their last meeting. He fell asleep in the camp on 12 March 1932.

He is commemorated on 12 March (a movable date) 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 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Yekaterinburg, on 3 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Karelia and on 1 November (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Karelia.