Sergius Zverev

Saint Sergius (in the world Alexander Mikhailovich Zverev, 1870-1937), hieromartyr, was Archbishop of Yelets. He was secretly consecrated bishop in the Crimea, passed through a brief lapse toward the Renovationist Church and other currents, of which he repented, was exiled and imprisoned, and was shot in a camp in the Karaganda region in November 1937. He was glorified locally in 1997 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and in August 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church, for veneration throughout the Church.

Youth and priesthood

He was born on 4 February 1870 in the village of Novo-⁠Pavlovka, in the Berdyansk district of Taurida province (today the Zaporizhzhia region), in the family of a church servant. He finished the church school at Simferopol (1887), the Taurida seminary and the law faculty of Saint Petersburg University, the Imperial Court Chapel as choir director and teacher of church singing, and in 1897 the Moscow Theological Academy, as candidate of theology. He was ordained priest on 8 August 1899 and was inspector and religion teacher at the diocesan girls' school of Taurida until 1912, then archpriest. From 1919 he headed the church school at Simferopol, and from 1921 he was rector of the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

The bishop

Seeing the danger of arrest for Archbishop Nikodim (Krotkov), the latter decided to consecrate Archpriest Sergius Zverev bishop so that he could lead the diocese. It was one of the first secret episcopal consecrations in the Russian Church of the twentieth century. On the night of 28 August 1922, at the metochion of the Saints Cosmas and Damian monastery, Archbishops Nikodim and Demetrius and Abbess Bathsheba gathered, and the monastic tonsure and the consecration lasted until nine in the morning. After a month Archbishop Nikodim was arrested and Demetrius exiled. Bishop Sergius, left the only canonical bishop in the Crimea, took charge of the diocese.

In the autumn of 1922 he was arrested and recognized the Renovationist Church Council, and on 13 February 1923 he was elected Bishop of Melitopol, vicar of the Renovationist diocese of Yekaterinoslav. He was arrested again in October 1923, then freed in 1924 for lack of evidence. He repented before Patriarch Tikhon and temporarily administered the Samara diocese. He took part in the funeral of Patriarch Tikhon on 12 April 1925 and signed the act passing the Church's authority to Metropolitan Peter. At the beginning of 1926 he passed under the jurisdiction of the Provisional Supreme Church Council (the Gregorian schism), was then arrested and sentenced to three years of exile in the Urals. In 1927 he went over to the Josephites.

Archbishop of Yelets

In August 1929 the exile ended. He repented before Metropolitan Sergius, who raised him to archbishop and on 25 September 1929 appointed him to Yelets. He was a temporary member of the Holy Synod in the 1933-1934 session. On 21 January 1935 he was arrested, accused of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation through his links with the clergy and of preaching sermons supposedly calling for a struggle against Soviet power. He was sentenced to five years in camp, which contemporaries say he accepted with humility, without murmur, as from the hand of Christ. He was sent to the Karaganda camps, where he took part in secret prayer gatherings.

Martyrdom

He was arrested in the camp, did not admit guilt, and was sentenced to death for "illegal prayer meetings, memorial services for murdered priests, links with abroad and refusal to recognize Soviet power". He was shot on 14 (or 20) November 1937 in the Karaganda region. On 11 June 1997 the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed his local glorification, at Melitopol, and in August 2000 the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the New Martyrs and Confessors. He is commemorated on 7 November (20 November by the new calendar).