Archbishop
Archbishop Vereya Hilarion, in the world Vladimir Alekseevich Troitsky, was born on September 13, 1886, in the family of a priest in the village of Lipitsy, Tula province. From early childhood, he showed a desire for learning, graduated from the Spiritual School and the Spiritual Seminary, and then from the Moscow Spiritual Academy, where he received the degree of Candidate of Theology.
On March 28, 1913, he accepted monasticism with the name Hilarion, and on June 2, he was ordained as a hieromonk. In 1913, he was appointed inspector of the Moscow Spiritual Academy, and later became an extraordinary professor of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. His works enriched church science, and his sermons called the people to faith and moral renewal.
In 1917-1918, he spoke at the Local Council in defense of the patriarchate, asserting that the Russian Church had never been without a primate. After the Bolsheviks came to power, in March 1919, he was arrested and spent three months in prison.
On May 11/24, 1920, he was consecrated as Bishop of Vereya, and shortly thereafter found himself in exile in Arkhangelsk. After returning from exile, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon brought him closer to himself and appointed him archbishop. His activities manifested a struggle against Renovationism, he restored the church organization and conducted serious negotiations with the authorities regarding the life of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In December 1923, he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and sent to the Kem camp, then to Solovki. While in captivity, he preserved the good qualities of his soul, demonstrating humility and kindness. His Calvary ended on December 15/28, 1929, in the prison hospital, where he died of typhus.
He was buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Monastery in Leningrad, and his death was a great loss for the Russian Orthodox Church.
