Seraphim Chichagov

Metropolitan Seraphim ( 9 June or 9 January 1856 – 11 December 1937), born Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov (, was a Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church who was executed by firing squad, and was canonized by the Church in 1997 as a New Martyr.

Born into a military family, he enlisted as an artillery officer after finishing his schooling. Influenced by his experiences in the Russo-Turkish War and meetings with John of Kronstadt, he resigned from the military and became a clergyman. He retired in 1933 due to age and ill health. Four years later he was arrested and charged with monarchist propaganda. Sentenced to death by firing squad, he was executed on 11 December 1937 at the Butovo firing range.

Early life Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov was born on 9 June 1856 in St. Petersburg, Russia to artillery Colonel Mikhail Nikiforovich Chichagov and Maria Nikolaevna. He was born into a minor noble family from the Kostroma area with a strong military background. His great-grandfather participated in a study of the Arctic Ocean during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, and his grandfather, Admiral Paul Chichagov, Leonid Chichagov was baptized on 20 October 1856 in the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky at the Mikhailovsky military school. He moved to Moscow with his family where he commenced his ecclesiastical studies. He was ordained a deacon on 26 February 1893 in the Church of the Twelve Apostles, a minor cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Two days later, he was ordained a priest. He was awarded the right to wear the nabedrennik and skufia vestments in recognition of his work in restoring the church. In 1896 he was appointed military chaplain for the artillery troops stationed in the Moscow garrison, Despite his condition, he was charged with monarchist propaganda and arrested on 30 November 1937. Upon his arrest, the NKVD officers carried him from his home on a stretcher. He was imprisoned in Taganka Prison and sentenced to death by firing squad. He was executed at the Butovo firing range on 11 December 1937.