A special holiday on December 11 is the day of the Holy Martyr Seraphim: history and traditions

On December 11, the Orthodox calendar commemorates the Holy Martyr Seraphim, Metropolitan Chichagov, one of the most revered new martyrs of the 20th century. Believers remember his life, tragic death and spiritual legacy. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Hieromartyr Seraphim: biography and history

Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, the future Metropolitan Serafim, was born in St. Petersburg in 1856 into a noble family. His youth was spent in an atmosphere of military service and classical education, he graduated from the Corps of Pages and participated in the Russian-Turkish War, after which he met the spiritual influence of John of Kronstadt and chose the church ministry.

In Chichagov's mundane biography, his career as an officer and medical education, as well as his passion for theology and icon painting, coexisted. After receiving positions in the church hierarchy, he became famous as a rector and organizer of parish life, and later as bishop and Metropolitan of Petrograd.

The story of his life is the story of the transition from a high social position to the humility of a pastor at a difficult time for the Russian Church, when church activity increasingly came under pressure from the state and ideology.

Metropolitan Seraphim's spiritual and literary heritage includes collections of pastoral teachings, historical works about saints, as well as examples of church art. His writings and personal reputation played a role in further glorification.

After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power, Chichagov continued to perform his episcopal duties, but in the 1930s he found himself in the field of a repressive campaign: arrested and accused of "monarchist propaganda," the metropolitan was sentenced to death and shot on December 11, 1937 at the Butovo training ground.

In the post-revolutionary period, he was rehabilitated, and the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Leonid Chichagov as a saint of the New Martyrs and confessors, setting his memorial day on December 11.

Why is Memorial Day celebrated on December 11th?

The date of December 11 has been fixed in church memory as the day of Metropolitan Seraphim's martyrdom: it was on this day in 1937 that he was executed during the repression, and since then the date has become a symbolic reminder of the bishop's fate and feat during the era of persecution of the church.

Commemoration is included in the Cathedrals of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and December 11 is now designated in church calendars as the day when believers pay homage to his life and sufferings for the faith. For the parish tradition, the date is important because it connects the memory of an individual with the general outline of the church martyrdom of the 20th century, facilitating understanding of the chronology of the tragedy and serving as an occasion for liturgical reflection.

The memory of Metropolitan Seraphim in church circles is not only of a ritual nature. It is accompanied by educational initiatives, publications, and theological reflections on the role of the bishop in the history of the Russian Church.

In 1997, the Russian Orthodox Church officially canonized him as a holy martyr, adding him to the number of those who suffered for their faith during the Soviet era. Commemoration on December 11 is celebrated in churches, monasteries and in specialized publications devoted to the history of the New Martyrs.

Traditions and church customs of this day

The liturgical practice on the day of the memory of the Holy Martyr Seraphim fits into the general framework of memorial services for new martyrs: prayer services, special troparia and kontakion are read in cathedral and parish churches, and the church charter provides for the commemoration of the saint's name in a special litany.

Memorial services and akathists are held in major spiritual centers and monasteries, sometimes dedicated to those aspects of spiritual ministry for which the metropolitan became famous, such as pastoral care, literary work, and heroic deeds in exile or imprisonment.

For parishioners, this is a day when bread, candles, and notes with the names of the living and deceased are traditionally brought to the service, and readings of the saint's life and historical materials are organized as a form of preserving collective memory.

The folk tradition associated with the date of December 11 was formed more around the memory of martyrdom and sorrow than around the characteristic signs and economic prohibitions typical of more ancient calendar dates.

Nevertheless, in the regions where Metropolitan Seraphim was particularly revered, local customs appeared: memorial meetings with the reading of his life, visits to cemeteries and bringing gifts of a suddenly acquired "family history", conversations about the fate of relatives whose life paths intersected with the era of persecution. Such practices served as a means of collective healing and preservation of historical memory in small communities.