Methodius (Krasnoperov)

In the world, Krasnoperov Mikhail Platonovich, born on July 30, 1868, in the village of Vyatskoye, Sarapulsky Uyezd, Vyatka Province, into a poor family of a psalmist.

He graduated from Sarapul Theological School and Vyatka Theological Seminary, and in 1890 was appointed as an overseer of the Sarapul Theological School.

On October 22, 1891, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Athanasius (Parkhomovich) of Sarapul and assigned to the Tikhvin Church in the village of Pazdery, Sarapulsky Uyezd.

On February 19, 1896, he was appointed an extra-staff priest at the Ascension Cathedral in Sarapul and head and law teacher at the Nikolskaya Parish School.

In 1898, he was widowed and in the same year entered the Kazan Theological Academy.

On February 11, 1900, he was tonsured a monk with the name Methodius.

In 1902, he graduated from the Academy with a degree in theology and on August 16 of the same year, he was appointed assistant inspector of the Ufa Theological School. He organized religious-moral and anti-alcohol readings and one of the parish schools in the city of Ufa.

In 1903, he was appointed inspector of the Alexandrov Missionary Seminary in the city of Ardon in Ossetia and a member of the Ardon Department of the Diocesan School Council.

In 1905, he was appointed acting rector of the Ufa Theological Seminary, and on November 20, 1906, he was confirmed in this position and elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

In 1907, he was elected a permanent member of the Ufa Diocesan Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society, in 1908, he was appointed editor of the unofficial part of "Ufa Diocesan News" and in the same year, senior member of the Educational Department of the Ufa Diocesan Brotherhood of the Resurrection of Christ with the title of assistant chairman of the Brotherhood.

In 1909, an active pastoral-preaching circle operated in Ufa, whose task was to bring the light of Christ's teachings beyond the church walls. One of the active members of the circle was Archimandrite Methodius. On his initiative, from December 1, 1909, regular talks began in the city shelter, in which he took an active part, visiting shelters with seminary students, conducting prayers, vigils, distributing books and brochures of religious-moral content to literate people, explaining and clarifying much from Christian teachings.

On November 13, 1911, with the active participation of Father Methodius, the Board of Trustees for Poor Seminary Students was established in Ufa.

Archimandrite Methodius was an active member of the Ufa Diocesan Committee of the Orthodox Missionary Society and chaired all committee meetings during the absence of the diocesan bishop. In 1911, he was sent on a missionary trip to the village of Tabynsk in the Sterlitamak district for the celebration of the Tabyn Icon of the Mother of God.

On February 10, 1913, he was consecrated as Bishop of Akmolinsk, Vicar of the Omsk Diocese. The consecration in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was led by Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of St. Petersburg, assisted by Metropolitan Flavian (Gorodetsky) of Kiev and other hierarchs.

On February 20, Bishop Methodius arrived in Omsk, and on April 5, Bishop Andronik (Nikolsky) appointed as the administrator of the Omsk Diocese, arrived at the see.

On July 21, 1913, the Diocesan Brotherhood of Sobriety was established in Omsk, with Bishop Methodius as its chairman.

In 1914, the Petropavlovsk City Duma petitioned the Omsk Diocese to relocate the residence of the Bishop of Akmolinsk from Omsk to Petropavlovsk, stating that it was ready to allocate funds for the maintenance of the episcopal house. On November 6, 1914, a decree was published renaming the second vicar of the Omsk Diocese to Bishop of Petropavlovsk, granting him significant authority in the independent administration of the parishes of the Petropavlovsk, Kokchetav, and Atbasar districts.

On March 27, 1917, the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies decided to send telegrams to Minister Kerensky and the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod requesting the removal of Bishop Methodius from Petropavlovsk due to his reactionary activities that allegedly threatened public order. The Holy Synod ignored this request.

In 1921, Western Siberia was engulfed in a peasant uprising. The rebels managed to capture the cities of Petropavlovsk, Ishim, Tobolsk, and form the Northern Siberian Government. The uprising was brutally suppressed by the Bolsheviks. Bishop Methodius was killed as a means of intimidation during the suppression of the uprising.

On February 17, 1921, the bishop served the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Church in Petropavlovsk. After the service, he stepped out to address the crowd gathered in front of the church with words of reconciliation and was stabbed with bayonets in front of the church. After his death, Red Army soldiers inflicted additional bayonet wounds on his body and then drove a cross into one of the wounds.

He was canonized in August 2000 at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Troparion, Tone 3:

O unshakable pillar of the Rus’ Church, rule of piety, and image of the Gospel life,
 O Hieromartyr Methodius, who didst suffer for Christ even unto blood,
earnestly pray unto Him, the Author and Fulfiller of our salvation, that He may firmly establish Holy Rus’ in Orthodoxy until the end of time.

Kontakion, Tone 2:

Let us, the faithful, extol the excellent among hierarchs and glorious among martyrs, Methodius, the champion of Orthodoxy and zealous upholder of piety, the radiant offspring of the Rus’ land, who by his suffering hath attained the heavens, and there fervently prayeth unto Christ God for the salvation of our souls.

Magnification:

We magnify thee, O Hieromartyr Methodius, and we honor thy venerable sufferings, which thou didst endure for Christ for the establishment of Orthodoxy in Rus’.

Words and sermons of the Holy Martyr Methodius (Krasnoperov)