www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Two New Saints in Russian Orthodox Church

During its recent synod, the Moscow Patriarchate decided on the causes of two saints.

St Maxim Sandovych was a former Greek-Catholic who became Orthodox and then an Orthodox priest. He was martyred by the Austrian authorities and glorified by the UOC-MP becoming united to the Synaxis of the Saints of Carpatho-Rus', that of Galicia and also that of Volyn. The MP extended his cultus to the ROC.

At the same time, the MP established a joint committee with the Bulgarians to examine the cause of Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev of Bohucharsk in Bulgaria. The Archbishop has been glorified a saint by smaller jurisdictions.

The committee will report back to the MP during its synod in the first week of February with its findings.

Alex

St. Maxim had already been glorified by the Polish Orthodox Church. I believe Archbishop Seraphim was glorified by the Bulgarian Old Calendarist Church.

If an Orthodox Saint is glorified by a jurisdiction not in communion with world Orthodoxy - as St Seraphim of Sofia was - what does that mean? Is that saint a "local saint" or . . . what?

Alex

I guess that's a matter of speculation. Concerning St. Maxim, I recall that the Bulgarian OC bishop participated in ROCOR's celebration of the saint.

Speaking of local saints, the Serbian Church glorified New Martyr Gorazd of Prague long before the Czech church did. This was correct because the Czechoslovak church at the time of St. Gorazd was a mission of the Serbian Church.

Yes, in 1994.