Day of Remembrance of the Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (02/03)

The miracle worker and Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, came from the Don Cossacks. According to the patriarch himself, he was first a priest in the city of Kazan at the Gostinodvorsk church in the name of St. Nicholas. Soon he became a monk and from 1582 was archimandrite of the Transfiguration Monastery in Kazan. In 1589, he was consecrated bishop and became the first Metropolitan of Kazan.

During the ministry of the future patriarch in Kazan, the appearance and discovery of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God took place in 1579. While still a priest, with the blessing of the then Kazan Bishop Jeremiah, he transferred the newly minted icon from the place of discovery to the church in the name of St. Nicholas. Possessing extraordinary literary talent, the saint himself compiled in 1594 a legend about the appearance of a miraculous icon and the miracles performed from it.

The activities of Patriarch Hermogenes coincided with the difficult — period for the Russian state, the invasion of the impostor False Dmitry and the Polish king Sigismund III. The High Priest devoted all his strength to serving the Church and the Fatherland. Patriarch Hermogenes was not alone in this feat: he was imitated and helped by selfless Russian people. With particular inspiration, His Holiness the Patriarch opposed the traitors and enemies of the Fatherland who wanted to enslave the Russian people, introduce Uniatism and Catholicism in Russia, and eradicate Orthodoxy.



The liberation of Russia, for which St. Hermogenes stood with such indestructible courage, was successfully completed, in his opinion, by the Russian people. The body of the Hieromartyr Hermogenes, who died in 1612, was buried in the Miracle Monastery, and in 1654 it was moved to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral.

The glorification of Patriarch Hermogenes as a saint took place (12) on May 25, 1913.

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