Sophronius Smirnov

Venerable Sophronius Smirnov (in the world Sergei Georgievich Smirnov) was an archimandrite, born in 1828 at Moscow and died in 1921, venerated as a saint with local veneration in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The local glorification took place in 2008, in the Donetsk diocese, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Sviatohirsk; the source does not mention a wider canonization. The record gives 11 September as the day of commemoration, but the source does not show it.

He was born in Moscow into the family of a priest. In 1837 he began study at the Vysoko-⁠Petrovsky theological school, studying at home on a leave ticket, under his father's direction, and coming to the school twice a year for examinations. In 1842 he finished the school and entered the Moscow theological seminary, which he graduated in 1850, in the second category. In 1853 he became a novice at the Sviatohirsk hermitage, where he had the obedience of clerk; his confessor was the schemamonk John (Kryukov). In 1856 he was tonsured a monk with the name Sophronius, in honour of Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem, in 1857 he was ordained hierodeacon, and in 1861 hieromonk. In 1881, on the recommendation of Archimandrite Herman, he was appointed abbot of the Saint Demetrius monastery of Ryasna, Akhtyrka district, Kharkov governorate, with elevation to the rank of hegumen. In 1883 he received the pectoral cross. In 1885 he was moved to the Kholm-⁠Warsaw diocese and appointed confessor of the episcopal house at Kholm, and later confessor of the Kholm seminary. In 1887, at the request of Bishop Modest, who had known him during his administration of the Kholm diocese, he was appointed abbot of the Ascension men's hermitage of Vysokaya Gora, near Arzamas, in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. In 1889 he was raised to the rank of archimandrite. From 1894 to 1904 he was dean of the monasteries and communities of the second district of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. He received the orders of Saint Anne second and third class, Saint Vladimir equal to the apostles fourth class, and the silver medal of the emperor Alexander III. He strongly supported the spread of spiritual education and built parish church schools in the villages of Khvatovka and Bykovka, for which he received a Bible from the Holy Synod and the title of lifetime member of the Nizhny Novgorod diocesan school council.

In his last years he bore the labour of the hermit and of eldership. On 16 November 1907 he was retired from the office of abbot of the Vysokaya Gora hermitage by a decree of the consistory. In 1908 he settled in a cell built in the place called Maidannaya Polyana, in the forest of Vysokaya Gora, 30 versts from Arzamas, beside which a wooden church was consecrated in honour of the Descent of the Lord Jesus Christ into Hades. Beside his cell his spiritual children began to settle and, after a time, a monastic community arose, known as Sophronius' Hermitage. He was glorified by the spiritual gifts of eldership, foresight, working wonders and casting out demons; even in his lifetime he was greatly venerated by the people. He died in 1921 and was buried in the chapel of the Life-⁠giving Cross of the Lord, by his own will, in a simple vestment, with a simple cross and the Gospel.

In the 1930s robbers dug up the grave and opened the coffin, looking for treasure, but found nothing. The inhabitants of the nearby village, coming to put the ravaged grave in order, found his relics incorrupt. On 8 May 2008, by a decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the local canonization of the ascetic was decided in the Donetsk diocese, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Sviatohirsk. The service of glorification took place during the visit of the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, to the Sviatohirsk Lavra, on 12 July 2008, in the Dormition cathedral.