Hieromartyr Philosophos of St Petersburg and his Sons

Ministry and Charitable Work

Ornatsky's reputation rested above all on his preaching and on a sustained program of social and educational work in the imperial capital. He served successively at the orphanage church of the Prince of Oldenburg, at the church of the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers from 1892 to 1912, and from 1913 as rector of the Kazan Cathedral. Through his efforts a number of churches were built in and around Saint Petersburg, among them the Church of the Resurrection of Christ at the Varshavsky railway station.

He directed the building of hostels, orphanages, and almshouses, organized courses of religious instruction for factory workers, and founded a technical college offering secondary and professional education. He also edited several religious periodicals and, in 1900, chaired a commission on reforming catechism instruction in secondary schools. He had ten children and lived modestly; during the First World War he gave over his own residence to serve as a hospital for the wounded. The synaxarion notes that he was closely associated with Saint John of Kronstadt, to whom he was also related by marriage.

Arrest and Execution

After the revolution Ornatsky preached openly against the new regime's hostility to the Church, and the authorities are said to have judged his sermons too dangerous. He was arrested in 1918; two of his sons, Boris—a staff captain—and Nicholas—a military doctor—were taken with him. The three, with a larger group of prisoners, were shot near the Gulf of Finland, by tradition between Ligovo and Oranienbaum, and the bodies were cast into the bay. Sources vary on the exact date of the arrest and on the precise execution site, some placing it near Kronstadt; by one account his body later washed ashore near Oranienbaum and was buried in secret by local inhabitants.

Glorification

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia included Ornatsky and his sons among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 1981. They were glorified for general veneration by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in August 2000, when more than a thousand victims of the Soviet persecutions were canonized. Father, and sons are commemorated together on May 31.