Seraphim (Bogoslovsky)

In the world, Alexander Efimovich Bogoslovsky, born in 1881 in Glukhov, Chernigov Governorate. His father, Yefim, was an estate manager. His mother, Maria, was a gentle woman who constantly attended church. The family had two children – Sasha and his older sister. When Father Seraphim was still a schoolboy, his mother had a dream from God revealing that her son would meet a martyr's death. This dream deeply affected the young boy, and he reasoned, "If my end is to be martyrdom, what is there for me to seek in the world?" Thus, upon reaching youth, he withdrew to Glinsk Hermitage.

In 1907, he was tonsured a monk by Bishop Dimitry.

Father Seraphim was a highly educated monk who led an ascetic life. He was endowed with a talent for iconography and had a beautiful singing voice. His spiritual father was Hieromonk Domn (Aggeev), and their spiritual connection continued even after Domn's death in 1908. In Glinsk Hermitage, he fulfilled his obedience in the icon-painting workshop, but he was also an excellent reader.

In the early 20th century, Father Seraphim, along with other monks from Glinsk Hermitage, was invited to the Holy Trinity Men's Missionary Monastery, founded in 1882 by Bishop Alexander (Kulchitsky) on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. This monastery aimed to spread Orthodoxy in the Turkestan region and provide spiritual enlightenment to the Asian nomads.

In 1909, in the city of Verny (now Almaty), Father Seraphim was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Dimitry at the Dormition Church of the Turkestan Episcopal House.

The urban bustle was burdensome for the monk from Glinsk, and during his free time from the weekly services, he, along with other monks, retreated to the mountainous area of Medeo. There, they jointly established a skete on the Mohnataya Hill.

In the skete, wooden cells were set up, a cross was erected, around which a flower garden was created, and an underground church was built in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Father Seraphim crafted all the church furnishings and painted all the icons for the church. During this period, the Iversko-Seraphimovskaya women's community was founded in the city of Verny, which was converted into a women's cenobitic monastery in 1910. Father Seraphim devoted his pastoral care to strengthening the monastery, providing spiritual guidance to its inhabitants.

In 1911, Hieromonk Seraphim was released into the mountains for a hermit's life by Bishop Dimitry. A year later, another monk, Anatoly (Smirnov), who was also tonsured by Bishop Dimitry, joined him.

In 1913, the number of hermits increased by two more hieromonks: Anthony, who had fled from Issyk-Kul Monastery, and Ezekiel, who had arrived from Mount Athos. Eventually, several laymen, wearing long hair, cassocks, and belts, joined them: Michael, Ilya, Thyrsus, and others. Initially, they gathered for worship in the Episcopal dacha church, but later they dug a special cave, furnished it with necessary items for worship, and requested an antimension. Thus, a small skete was formed, where the members lived on herbs, vegetables, and dry bread, residing in small huts. This place was located 15 versts from the city and 6 versts from the Episcopal country house.

In 1913, a great disturbance and disorder began in the Iversko-Seraphimovsky Monastery. Father Seraphim, deeply troubled by the fate of the monastery, where spiritual life was increasingly waning, took his spiritual children from the monastery to the skete on Mohnataya Hill. The monks themselves decided to find a more secluded place for their ascetic endeavors.

The place for the skete was indicated by God: while searching for a location, the monks spent the night in the Aksai Gorge near a beekeeping area at the foot of Kyzyl-Zhar Mountain. Suddenly, they saw a bright light on the mountain. Climbing up the mountain, they examined the place from which an unearthly glow emanated at dusk, and upon returning, they said, "What a wonderful place this is! How joyful it is there! What holiness, what beauty, what grace!" At this site, they set up cells approximately 100 meters apart from each other and dug three caves – one for storing food and the other two for prayer. (These caves still exist today.) They conducted services in the large wooden cell of Father Anatoly.

Once, Father Seraphim had a subtle vision in a dream: "The three of them — Father Anatoly, Father Theognost, and Father Seraphim — were walking through the gorge and saw a temple of extraordinary beauty. All three entered the temple, but Father Anatoly left the temple and ran away. There were five burning chandeliers hanging in this temple. The central chandelier swayed, swayed, broke off, and fell to the floor. The second chandelier swayed and fell. The third chandelier swayed but did not fall, it held on, and two chandeliers hung motionless." This dream later proved to be prophetic.

Every Sunday, Father Seraphim served in the skete on Mohnataya Hill, among his spiritual daughters. According to the recollections of Nun Magdalene: "When Father Seraphim celebrated the Liturgy, it was impossible to look into the altar; there was some extraordinary radiance... It was also impossible to look at Father Seraphim, he stood there all aglow in a radiance that I cannot explain. Such reverence overcame me that I immediately stepped away from the altar, as if something was pushing me away. Such, apparently, was the grace present."

Father Seraphim had a meek disposition and tried to remain unnoticed, sometimes even behaving foolishly: eating sloppily, being disheveled. However, before the service, he always carefully put himself in order.

In the Aksai mountains, the monks mowed hay, grew potatoes, and planted carnations near the spring next to the skete…

The summer of 1921 was exceedingly rainy, culminating in a severe flood and mudflow that occurred on the feast day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God.

In August 1921, all five monks from the Aksai skete went to the city of Verny (now Almaty) to the Nikolskaya Church to celebrate the feast of Saint Panteleimon the Healer. Two of them stayed in the city, while three returned to the skete.

On the evening of August 10, 1921, three Red Army soldiers arrived at the skete on horseback, armed with rifles. Father Seraphim welcomed them into his cell, offered them tea with honey, and prepared a bed of hay under a fir tree for them to sleep. He then went to Father Anatoly and told him about the suspicious armed men. Afterward, he knelt with his prayer beads and began to read the prayer rule. At dawn on August 11, the soldiers approached him, aimed a rifle at his back, and he shouted, "Anatoly!" As he shouted, they fired. Father Anatoly realized that Father Seraphim had been killed and ran to the apiary for help. The bandits then killed the sleeping Father Theognost, searched the cells hoping to find money, but finding nothing, they left.

The next day, militiamen arrived, inspected the scene, and gave permission for burial. A grave was dug, covered with boards, and the monks were buried without coffins, wrapped in their mantles. Father Anatoly (Smirnov) conducted the funeral service in the skete on Mohnataya Hill. Memorial services were held in all the churches of Verny because the monks were highly revered in the city. The killers were found, but the military tribunal refused to try them.

Foreseeing his death, Father Seraphim said to two of his spiritual daughters, "I will not be here. I will be buried here, and you should come to my grave every year." The nuns, novice nuns, and parishioners fulfilled this obedience. Despite state atheism, the names of the murdered monks did not disappear from the memorial synodics of the Holy Nikolsky Cathedral in Almaty, and pilgrimages to the grave in the Aksai Gorge continued all these years.

In 1991, on the 70th anniversary of the tragedy, a memorial cross was erected at the site of the murder of the hieromonks. In 1992, a chapel canopy was constructed.

By the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, on August 11, 1993, local veneration was established for the new martyrs—the hieromonks Seraphim and Theognost and those who suffered with them in the land of Kazakhstan.

Both martyrs, Seraphim and Theognost, were glorified for general church-wide veneration at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.