The relics of Hieromartyr Vissarion, Presbyter of Urjar

The relics of Hieromartyr Vissarion rest in a wooden reliquary in the St. Elijah Church in the village of Urjar in the East Kazakhstan region. The discovery of the relics was made on October 13/26, 2001, with the blessing of Archbishop Alexy of Astana and Almaty (now Metropolitan of Tula and Efremov).

Vissarion Methodievich Selinin was born in 1876. He graduated from two classes of the Vladimir Theological Seminary and from 1896 served as a psalmist in the Vladimir Diocese. In 1899, he was appointed a psalmist in the church in the village of Peschanskoye, Pavlodar district, Omsk province. In 1902, he was ordained a deacon to this church. In 1905, he was transferred to the Church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus in the city of Pavlodar. In 1906, he was ordained a priest to the church in the village of Ilyinka, Omsk province, and appointed rector.

In 1910, he transferred to the Turkestan Diocese and served in the church in the village of Gerasimovka, Lepsinsky district. From 1911, he served in the village of Ivanovskoye in the same district. In 1916, he was appointed rector of the Church of Elijah the Prophet in the village of Urjar, Lepsinsky district, Semirechensk region, and dean of the churches of the Urjar district.

On May 1, 1918, during a clash between a May Day demonstration and a religious procession, he was hacked to death with sabers.

He was canonized as a saint among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia for general church veneration in August 2000 at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Commemoration - May 1 (April 18, O.S.), and also in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Kazakhstan.