Moscow, September 17, 2019
OrthoChristian previously reported on the April 4th resolution of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize several new saints.
One of those saints who was added to the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church was Archpriest Andrei Zimin.
And on Saturday, September 14, the glorification of Archpriest Andrei Zimin was celebrated at a service led by His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Vladivostok and the Coastal Territory, reports the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Three bishops, dozens of priests and clergy, local government leaders, and over 500 pilgrims attended the joyous and historic occasion.
Before the start of the Liturgy, His Grace Bishop Innokenty of Ussuri, the Chairman of the Diocesan Committee for the Canonization of Saints, celebrated the last litiya for the repose of Archpriest Andrei Zimin.
During the Little Entrance, the decision of the Holy Synod to canonize Fr. Andrei among the New Martyrs and Confessors was read out, and an icon of the newly-glorified saint was brought out from the altar. The choir sang the troparion and kontakion to the saint, and the clergy sang the magnification.
The solemn service ended with a procession around the church with the icon of St. Andrei. The faithful were all given icons of the newly-glorified saint.
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Archpriest Andrei Zimin was added to the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors and will also be commemorated on January 5/18, the day of his martyric death.
Fr. Andrei was born in 1872 and was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in 1894. He was zealous in preaching and conducting conversations with parishioners and also served as a catechist. In Chernigovka, he oversaw the construction of a one-year ministry school, and in his first ten years serving as head of the local deanery, the number of parishes doubled. He was twice awarded by the tsar for his labors.
He was held hostage by Bolsheviks for a month in 1919, enduring humiliations and insults. He was released home in July, but a few months later, on the feast of Theophany in January, armed men broke into his house and began to torture him and his family. His wife, mother-in-law, and daughters were shot, while Fr. Andrei was thrown to the ground. The men put his door on his chest and stood on it, crushing Fr. Andrei with their weight.
According to a relative, Fr. John Konoplev, Fr. Andrei had foreseen his martyrdom in a dream. The bodies of those murdered were buried in a common grave by the church. The exact spot is lost today, but parishioners have erected a memorial cross on the approximate spot, to which pilgrims come to pray.
Matfey Shaheen