Bishop
Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Sarapul, Sviyazhsk, and Kazan (in the world Vasily Gudko) was born in the Lublin province in 1867. In 1889, he entered the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, where he took monastic vows in 1891 and was ordained as a hieromonk in 1893. He served in the Korean Spiritual Mission, was the inspector of the Moscow Don Spiritual School, and from 1901, he was the rector of the Volyn Theological Seminary.
In 1904, he was consecrated as Bishop of Kremenets, vicar of the Volyn diocese. From 1909, he served as Bishop of Balta, vicar of the Podolsk diocese. From 1914, he was appointed to the city of Sarapul, vicar of the Vyatka diocese.
On March 18, 1917, he was dismissed from the see and retired to the Sviyazhsk Monastery. There, at the relics of the first Saint of the Kazan land, Metropolitan German, he preached, urging the people not to succumb to the "corrupting influence" of seducers. His sermons, which condemned the plans of the Zionists, were banned by the synod.
The bishop courageously called for the defense of the imprisoned Tsar. In the spring of 1918, after the desecration in the monastery, he went to the land commissioner, threatening with a bell. Soon he was arrested and sent to Kazan, where he awaited execution by shooting, but the workers saved him with a strike. He served again and preached about suffering for Christ.
After returning to Sviyazhsk, on July 27, 1918, by order of Leiba Bronstein, the bishop was arrested and taken to the station Tyurlem, where he was killed. His body was found with multiple wounds and buried. He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Archpastoral Council in August 2000 for public veneration.
