Moscow, December 9, 2024
pravoslavie.ru
By order of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, work has begun on collecting materials towards the possible canonization of Schema-Archimandrite Zosima (Sokur), a beloved elder in Donbass who reposed in 2002.
The news was announced at Moscow presentation of the new book by Vladimir Karagodin, Holy Rus’ Will Win!: Donetsk Elder Zosima, reports TASS.
Elder Zosima is known for stressing the importance of the unity of the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.
The head of the Donetsk People’s Republic representative office in Moscow, Olga Makeeva, noted that Elder Zosima played “the greatest role” in the life of the Donbass. According to her, 12 years after the Elder’s death, difficult times came to Ukraine, which he had long warned about. In 2014, there was a coup in Kiev, and “power passed into the hands of puppets of the satanic West.”
“Russophobic hysteria destroyed everything connected with Russia and its great history in its path. But the Donbass didn’t accept the coup, didn’t accept the illegal authority, for which it was declared a terrorist, and military aviation, armored vehicles, and artillery were thrown at its suppression. The Donbass stood tall to protect its homeland, the memory of its ancestors, and the Orthodox faith. And among the defenders were Father Zosima’s parishioners who had grown up, who stood up to defend Russian land, as the Elder had bequeathed them,” said Makeeva.
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Elder Zosima was born on September 3, 1944, in the village of Kosolmanka, Sverdlovsk Province. His mother was arrested for communicating with nuns and gave birth to him in the prison hospital. He was named in honor of St. John the Baptist on the counsel of St. Kuskha of Odessa. His father died in the war the year he was born.
From 1961 to 1964, he studied at an agricultural college then briefly worked as a veterinarian. Then he received a blessing to become a novice at the Kiev Caves Lavra. There, he lived in the cell where St. Kuksha of Odessa lived until his repose.
From 1968 to 1975, he studied at the Leningrad Theological Seminary, graduating with a PhD in theology. In 1975, he was tonsured a monk with the name Savvaty. Upon graduating, he was sent to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa. He soon transferred to the Donetsk Diocese to be able to take care of his ailing mother. There, he worked to rebuilt the building and community of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in the village of Alexandrovka.
In the 1980s, the Soviet authorities began to take note of the zealous priest. He was threatened and beaten, after which his health deteriorated sharply. Under pressure from the KGB, he was transferred from one parish to another. Wherever he went, he labored intensely to rebuild churches and bring the people back to holy Orthodoxy.
In 1990, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and in 1992, he was tonsured into the schema with the name Zosima.
In 1998, he founded the Holy Dormition Monastery of Sts. Nicholas and Basil the Great in the village of Nikolskoye, Donetsk.
On February 1, 1998, he was appointed confessor of the Donetsk Diocese.
Elder Zosima reposed in the Lord on August 29, 2002. He was buried on the territory of the monastery.
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