Sampson Sievers - Conversion Into Orthodoxy, First Arrest, Execution and Work in Tikhvin

Conversion Into Orthodoxy, First Arrest, Execution and Work in Tikhvin

By the grace of God, 12 years old teenager who had interest in many confessions chose Orthodoxy. He secretly attended Orthodox church, not to sadden his mother. In 1917 (at the age of 17) at the time of re-baptism at the Orthodox church Edward received the name Sergius (after Sergius of Radonezh) through lots. Love of loneliness and prayer brought him to the monastery. In 1918 the boy left for Savvo-Krypetskiy Monastery of John the Theologian.

In 1919 Bolsheviks arrested Sergius wrongly presuming that he is of Tsarist family. The group of armed soldiers-Latvians that came suddenly to the monastery and took him in custody. The monks daily visited the novice bringing bread and milk. Close to the Feast of Pokrov (Protection) of Mother of God he was executed. Nevertheless remained alive being wounded in the right arm. The elder recollected: "They were shooting with rifle at distance 10-15 steps. The bullet hit the arm. I felt hot and lost consciousness. Someone hit me with boot's tip and said "Finished!" In the night the wounded Sergius was pulled out of the pile of corpses by monks, dressed in the Red Army outfits and in disguise of a wounded Red Army soldier delivered to his mother and then taken for treatment to the military hospital in Tikhvin. In the hospital in Tikhvin the physicians managed to cope with the gangrene that started. The preservation of the right arm the elder called the miracle of surgery, since the gas gangrene started after he was wounded. In Tikhvin, Sievers got to know the bishop of Tikhvin Alexiy (Simanskiy), the future patriarch, at whom he became hypo-deacon. Remaining in Tikhvin, Sievers became the club manager, read educational lectures in the hospitals, went on missions regarding the provision issues. During these mission he performed the assignments of Tikhvin bishop Alexiy, securing the connection of patriarch Tikhon with "disgraced" clerics namely with the imprisoned Novgorod metropolitan Arseniy and others. Sievers's position (January 1919) was letter-carrier (a sort of postman) on the Saint Petersburg section of Moscow - Vindavo - Rybinsk railway. According to the documents of Central State Archives of Saint Petersburg the last secular position of Sievers was service as manager of Tikhvin garrison club in 1919-1922.

Thanks to the help of bishop Alexiy, Sievers entered into Alaxandre-Nevsky Lavra in May 1921. May 25, 1925 (1921?) he was tonsured into monks by vladyka Nicholas Yarushevich receiving new name Symeon. January 19, 1925 was consecrated into the rank of hieromonk (priest-monk). At the same time, when accepted into hieromonks, he became the treasurer of lavra. Being monk Sievers also studied at the Saint Petersburg's (Russian Orthodox) Theological Institute (finished in 1925).

Father S. Sievers confessed the academician Ivan Pavlov, president of Soviet Academy of Sciences A.N. Karpinskiy and others. In 1928 hieroschemonk Serafim Vyritskiy blessed father Symeon Sievers for elderdom.