Saint martyr Hermogenes, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia ; 1858-1918) was a prominent Russian Orthodox religious figure. Influenced by Nicanor, Bishop of Kherson, he chose the Orthodox ministry after finishing the Novorossiysk University. Following his education in Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary in 1892, Dolganyov accepted the name Hermogenes. In 1893 he became the inspector of the Tiflis Theological Seminary in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, and in 1898 - its dean. In this capacity Hermogenes was responsible for expelling one of Seminary's most famous students, Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin). In 1903 he became the Bishop of Saratov

Saratov

-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...

 and Tsaritsyno

Tsaritsyno

Tsaritsyno is a Moscow Metro station in Tsaritsyno District, Southern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, between Kantemirovskaya and Orekhovo stations....

. Hermogenes founded the Annunciation Convent and Saint Trinity Monastery in Khvalynsk

Khvalynsk

Khvalynsk is a river port town in Saratov Oblast, Russia, located by the Volga River. Population: 16,000 .It was founded in 1556 as a Russian outpost on the Sosnovy Island on the Volga. In 1606, the whole settlement was relocated to the spot of today's Khvalynsk and came to be known as Sosnovy...

, Volsk

Volsk

Volsk is a town in Saratov Oblast, Russia, located to the northeast from Saratov, on the right bank of the Volga River, opposite the mouth of the Bolshoy Irgiz, the Volga tributary. Population:...

 Town Church of Annunciation and several other institutions. In the end of 1911 Hermogenes has came into conflict with the Holy Synod

Holy Synod

In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod...

, opposing the introduction of funeral service for adherents of other faiths and the order

Religious order

A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...

 of female deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

s.

In April, 1918 Hermogenes was arrested by Bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s and was killed in the same year. Following the decree of March 31, 1999 he was canonized

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

.