Sergius Zacharczuk

Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Zacharczuk (in Polish Sergiusz Zacharczuk) was an Orthodox priest in Poland, killed for the faith in 1943. He was born in 1915 at Szychowice, to Nicholas and Maria; his father was a deacon and a well-⁠known conductor of church choirs. He entered the Orthodox seminary at Krzemieniec and studied also at the school for choir conductors and psalm-⁠readers at the monastery of Saint Onuphrius in Jabłeczna. In 1938 he married Alevtina of Kryłów and had a daughter, born after his death. He was ordained at Vilnius and appointed pastor at Nabróż, where he carried on active pastoral work and founded a large church choir, popular in the neighbouring villages.

On 6 May 1943, while serving in the chapel of a house in Nabróż, he was knocked down by the attackers, beaten unconscious and finished off with a shot to the head; the chapel was profaned, the altar overturned, the Gospel destroyed. On the same day fourteen other people were killed, among them seven women. He was buried the next day at Szychowice. On 20 March 2003 the council of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church proclaimed him a saint; in April 2003 his remains were exhumed and moved as relics to the church of Saint John the Theologian in Chełm, and the canonization services were held at Chełm on 7 and 8 June 2003.