Venerable Martyr Seraphim (Shakhmut)

Venerable Martyr Seraphim (Roman Shakhmut) was born in 1901 into a poor peasant family in the village of Podlesye, Minsk province. In 1922 he entered the Dormition Monastery of Zhirovichi, then in Poland, and was tonsured in 1923 with the name Seraphim; he served as choir director and was ordained hierodeacon and hieromonk, becoming hegumen in 1939 and later archimandrite.

In August 1941, with the blessing of Metropolitan Panteleimon (Rozhnovsky), he and Fr Gregory Kudarenko travelled through central and eastern Belarus restoring parish life: they collected petitions to reopen churches, served, baptised and preached, and reopened dozens of churches. Fr Seraphim served in Minsk, Vitebsk, Gomel and Bobruisk and cared for hospitals and orphanages.

He was arrested in Grodno on 6 September (24 August Old Style) 1944, accused of collaboration, and on 7 July 1945 sentenced to five years in a labour camp. He died in a camp in the Gorky region in 1946. He was glorified by the Belarusian Orthodox Church in 1999 and included among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2000. He is commemorated on 24 August / 6 September.