Veniamin (Kazansky)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Holy Martyr Veniamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd and Gdov (April 17, 1873 O.S. - August 13, 1922), born Vasily Pavlovich Kazanskii (Russian: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿), was a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church and eventually Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Petrograd from 1917 to 1922. He was executed by firing squad by Soviet authorities and, in August 1922, was recognized as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church. Veniamin was born to a priestly family in the pogost (village) of Nimenskii in the Andreevksii Volost of the Kargopol Uezd near Arkhangelsk in the Olonets Gubernia in the northwest of the Russian empire. He graduated from the Olonets Seminary in 1893 and earned his kandidatura in theology from the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy in 1897, defending a thesis on Archbishop Arkadii of Olonets' anti-heretical activities. He was tonsured a monk in 1895 and consecrated a hierodeacon (a deacon who is also a monk) that same year and a hieromonk (an ordained monk, a relative rarity in Eastern Christianity) in 1896.