Makary (Karmazin)

In the world, Grigory Yakovlevich Karmazin, he was born on October 1, 1875, in the Podolsk province into a family of a land surveyor.

On August 23, 1893, he was ordained a priest and served in the village of Vitkovets, Kamianets-Podilskyi County, Podolsk province.

In 1898, he graduated from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary.

On April 21, 1900, he was transferred to the village of Bandyshivka, Yampil County, in the same province.

From 1902 to 1918, he served as a military chaplain, first in the 8th Reserve Cavalry Regiment, then in the 152nd Infantry Vladikavkaz Regiment, and finally in the 729th Infantry Novoufimsky Regiment. In 1915, he was concussed, and a few months later, he was concussed and wounded again. After recovery, in the fall of 1915, he returned to the regiment as a protopriest (a reward for his pastoral work and personal bravery shown in the war).

From 1918, he served in various parishes of the Kiev diocese.

In 1922, he was tonsured a monk with the name Makary.

In the same year, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Uman, a vicar of the Kiev diocese. The consecration was led by Metropolitan Mikhail (Yermakov).

Soon, due to his remarkable administrative and organizational abilities, inexhaustible energy, and all-consuming devotion to church affairs, Bishop Makary gained authority not only in the Kiev diocese but also beyond it.

From 1922 to 1925, as the successor to Bishop Mikhail (Yermakov), Bishop Makary had to address issues that extended beyond the Kiev diocese, making him a key figure in the church situation in Ukraine in many respects.
Supporters of the Patriarchal Church in Ukraine began to consolidate around him.
At that time, Bishop Makary was the de facto head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. People turned to him from Poltava, Chernihiv, Volyn, Podolia, and even from Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk. The volume of church problems was so great that Bishop Makary concluded that it was necessary to ordain new bishops who could bear the burdens of archpastoral service under the new, unfavorable circumstances for the Church.

In 1923, Bishop Makary was arrested and spent several months in a Kiev prison.

During this time, meticulous and intensive work was carried out to create viable church groups composed of clergy and laity operating independently of the godless authorities. His cousin, Raisa Alexandrovna Rzhevskaya, was his closest and most loyal assistant in the most difficult and responsible circumstances. During his arrests and exiles, she kept his belongings, papers, and the addresses of people connected with the bishop. She maintained necessary church contacts and conveyed to him in exile the necessary information about the state of affairs in the Church. Bishop Makary communicated with the administratively exiled Bishop Parthenius through M. N. Buraya from Kiev. Doctor Georgy Alexandrovich Kostkevich was also a close, but as it turned out later, less steadfast assistant to Bishop Makary. He carried out various assignments, copied papers, and delivered his letters. The papers consisted of various appeals, messages, open letters, etc. The letters were to be delivered directly to the recipients through a trusted person.

In 1924, Bishop Makary temporarily managed the Kiev diocese.

At the beginning of 1925, Bishop Makary faced another arrest. He spent almost a year in prison, and during his absence, Archbishop Georgy (Deliev) assumed his duties, with Kostkevich executing his assignments. Kostkevich, on behalf of Archbishop Georgy, traveled to Moscow to inform Archbishop Parthenius, who had been administratively exiled to Moscow, about Bishop Makary's arrest and that he was taking over his duties. Bishops Sergius (Kuminsky), Filaret (Lynchevsky), and Athanasius (Molchanovsky) began to assist Archbishop Georgy as they had previously helped Bishop Makary.

Upon his release from prison, Bishop Makary faced refusal from Archbishop Georgy to hand over the affairs. At that time, Archbishop Georgy showed a clear tendency towards a conciliatory policy with the Soviet authorities. Under the influence of Bishop Makary, which was always significant, many bishops began to distrust Archbishop Georgy. Consequently, he lost his authority and was left isolated.

In 1925, Bishop Makary was appointed to the Ekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk) diocese, but in December of the same year, he was arrested again. After spending ten months in prison in Dnipropetrovsk, the bishop was exiled to Kharkov without the right to leave.

In 1926, when the Gregorian schism arose, Bishop Makary secretly blessed Father Nikolai Piskanovsky to travel through various Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Zhytomyr, to gather the opinions of bishops there and deliver the results to Moscow. Simultaneously, from Kharkiv, Bishop Makary sent handwritten appeals, proclamations, and other documents directed against the schismatic Gregorian Provisional Supreme Church Council (PSCC) to Kostkevich by mail. In Kyiv, this literature was reproduced on typewriters and distributed by Bishop Sergius (Kuminsky) and Kostkevich among clergy and laity through groups previously organized by Bishop Makary.

In 1926, along with other Ukrainian bishops, Bishop Makary raised his voice against the Gregorian schism by signing the "Appeal of Ukrainian Orthodox Hierarchs to the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), on the Condemnation of the Organizers of the Provisional Supreme Church Council":

"...We have learned with great sorrow about the emergence of the new church schism of the PSCC, which, in our opinion, is one of the means of destroying the foundations of our Holy Orthodox Church... Having familiarized ourselves with Your Eminence's canonical measures... regarding the schismatic PSCC, we consider these measures to be entirely correct..."

Throughout the autumn of 1926, foreseeing possible arrests in Ukraine, the issue of secretly ordaining new bishops was considered and discussed, similar to the election of candidates in 1923. The acts, signed by the Ukrainian bishops, were approved by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky). As before, the trusted protopriest Nikolai Piskanovsky visited the bishops on behalf of Bishop Makary. Both the elections and ordinations were conducted clandestinely, without prior notification of the authorities.

In 1927, Bishop Makary was arrested and exiled for three years to the Tomsk region. In 1930, after his release, he resided in the Smolensk region, in the city of Vyazma, until 1933, and then in Kostroma. He tirelessly preached, fought against the Renovationist schism, and established house churches where he prepared candidates for ordination.

On October 1, 1934, he was arrested again in the village of Selishche in the Ivanovo Industrial Region, accused of being the "inspirer and leader of the operatively liquidated church-monarchist counter-revolutionary group organization 'True Orthodox Church,' which conducted extensive anti-Soviet agitation and spread provocative rumors about famine in the USSR."

The arrest warrant stated:

"Karmazin is sufficiently exposed by preliminary investigation materials in anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, aimed against Soviet power, in connections with counter-revolutionary exiles, and in organizing anti-Soviet gatherings..."

From the indictment:

"He was the ideologist of the Orthodox Church... Conducted active anti-Soviet work: united reactionary and hostile parts of the clergy for active struggle against Soviet power... Planted illegal house churches to prepare church personnel; restored ideological ties with like-minded people in exile and other cities... Held secret prayers and anti-Soviet gatherings at his apartment."

During interrogation on November 1, 1934, Bishop Makary said:

"The period currently experienced by the Russian Church and the Orthodox clergy is considered temporary by us. Recognizing the October Revolution, condemned by the Local Council of 1917-18, as an illegal act, we... from the very beginning, took an irreconcilable stance against Soviet power and have steadfastly maintained this position to the present day."

On March 17, 1935, he was sentenced to five years of exile in Kazakhstan. The place of exile was the Ush-Tobe station, where relatives and close ones helped buy a small house for the bishop. His cousin, his faithful assistant Raisa Alexandrovna Rzhevskaya, and the priest Korolev, who were also exiled, settled with him. After some time, Bishop Porphyry (Gulevich), exiled from Simferopol, arrived at the Ush-Tobe station. He was warmly received by Bishop Makary and, at his insistence, stayed with him. Their shared perspective on the ongoing events, the path of their archpastoral service, and their love for prayer and ascetic life bonded the two hierarchs.

On November 20, 1937, Bishops Makary (Karmazin) and Porphyry (Gulevich) were arrested. Bishop Makary was accused of "anti-Soviet activities, anti-Soviet propaganda, and discrediting Soviet power; grouping counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet elements around himself and systematically receiving material assistance from them."

During the investigation, all the detainees were held in the Almaty city prison. Despite the fabricated charges not being substantiated and the accused not admitting their guilt, Bishop Makary and Bishop Porphyry were sentenced to execution.

Bishop Makary (Karmazin) was executed on December 3, 1937, and Bishop Porphyry (Gulevich) was executed a day earlier, on December 2.

He was canonized as a holy martyr and confessor by the Russian Orthodox Church at the Jubilee Bishops' Council in August 2000 for general church veneration.