Archbishop
Saint Seraphim, Archbishop of Uglich, was born on July 19, 1881, in the city of Mirgorod, Poltava province. In 1902, he graduated from the Poltava Theological Seminary and became a teacher in Alaska. In 1905, he was tonsured and ordained as a hieromonk. From 1908, he served in various ecclesiastical institutions, including the Tolzhsky Yaroslavl Monastery, where he wrote a work on the history of the monastery and opened a beekeeping school for orphaned boys.
In 1920, he was consecrated as Bishop of Uglich. He was part of the 'Parallel Synod,' founded by the Holy Martyr Archbishop Theodore, to counteract the Bolsheviks' control over the Church. From 1922, he was imprisoned in Yaroslavl, and in 1924, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
In 1925, he became the temporary administrator of the Yaroslavl Diocese. After the arrest of Metropolitan Joseph in 1926, he issued a message regarding his appointment as Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens. In 1927, he refused to accept the compromising conditions for the legalization of the Church, for which he was arrested.
In 1929, he was arrested again and sentenced to five years in a labor camp. On the Solovetsky Islands, he worked in general labor, sustaining an injury that led to his disability. In 1932, he was released and exiled to the Northern region, where he continued his ministry in the underground Church.
In 1934, he was arrested again and sentenced to five years in camps. He was executed on October 22, 1937. He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in August 2000 for public veneration.
