Hierarch
Saint (Hierarch) Athanasius (Sakharov), Bishop of Kovrov, Confessor
1887 — 1962
Also known as: Свт. Афанасий (Сахаров), еп. Ковровский, Священноисповедник Афанасий Ковровский, Афанасий Ковровский, Сергей Григорьевич Сахаров, Afanasy Sakharov
Bishop of Kovrov, vicar of the Vladimir diocese, a confessor who spent more than two decades in prisons, camps and exile; liturgist and hymnographer, co-author of the service to All Saints of Russia.
Athanasius (Sergei Grigorievich Sakharov, 1887–1962) grew up in Vladimir, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1912 and was tonsured a monk the same year. A member of the Local Council of 1917–1918, he worked on the calendar of Russian saints and, with Professor Boris Turaev, prepared the service to All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land, which he kept revising for the rest of his life.
Consecrated Bishop of Kovrov, vicar of the Vladimir diocese, on 10 July 1921, he firmly opposed the Renovationist schism. From 1922 he was arrested many times and passed through exile in the Komi region and Turukhansk, the Solovki camp and many other camps until 1955; of his 33 years as a bishop only about three were spent in his see. In prison he composed molebens, including the Moleben for the Fatherland of 1941.
After his release he lived in Petushki near Vladimir, headed the Patriarchal calendar and liturgical commission and collected and corrected over two hundred services to Russian saints. He died on 28 October 1962, was glorified as a confessor by the Council of Bishops in 2000, and his relics rest in the Nativity Monastery in Vladimir.