Hieromartyr Metrophanes of China

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "righteous" to "hieromartyr" (he was an ordained presbyter).

Hieromartyr Metrophanes, of Manchu origin, was born December 10, 1855. In June 1882 he was ordained deacon and then presbyter in Tokyo by Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan himself. For about 15 years he served with the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, working as a catechist and assisting Archimandrite Flavian (Gorodetsky) in translating liturgical texts into Chinese.

During the Boxer Rebellion (Yihetuan movement) in June 1900, rebels burned the buildings of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission; Fr. Metrophanes sheltered about 70 Chinese Christians in his home before being seized and killed together with his wife Tatiana (née Li) and two of his three sons (a third son, Sergius, survived and later became a protopriest). In total, 222 Chinese Orthodox Christians were killed in this episode — the first Chinese New Martyrs.

He was buried at Beijing's Orthodox cemetery beyond the Andingmen gate; during the Cultural Revolution the cemetery was destroyed (now the site of Qingnianhu Park), where his relics are believed to still rest. General church-wide glorification was granted by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in February 2016.

His feast is kept on June 10/23.