Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, came from the Don Cossacks. According to the testimony of the Patriarch himself, he was a priest in the city of Kazan at the Kazan Gostinodvorskaya Church in the name of St. Nicholas (memory of December 6 and May 9). He soon became a monk and from 1582 was the archimandrite of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Kazan. On May 13, 1589, he was consecrated bishop and became the first Metropolitan of Kazan.
During the ministry of His Holiness the Patriarch, the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God appeared and was found in Kazan in 1579. While still a priest, with the blessing of the then Kazan Bishop Jeremiah, he transferred the newly-revealed icon from the place of its finding to the church in the name of St. Nicholas. Possessing an outstanding literary talent, the saint himself composed in 1594 a legend about the appearance of the miraculous icon and the miracles performed by it. In 1591, the saint gathered newly baptized Tatars to the cathedral and for several days instructed them in the faith.
In 1592, the relics of St. Herman, the second Archbishop of Kazan (memory of September 25, November 6, June 23), who died in Moscow on November 6, 1567, during a pestilence, and was buried at the church in the name of St. Nicholas, were transferred. With the blessing of Patriarch Job (1589-1605), St. Hermogenes performed their burial in the Sviyazhsk Assumption Monastery. On January 9, 1592, St. Hermogenes sent a letter to Patriarch Job, in which he informed him that no special commemoration was being held in Kazan for Orthodox soldiers who laid down their lives for faith and the Fatherland near Kazan, and asked to establish a certain memorial day. At the same time, he reported on three martyrs who suffered in Kazan for the faith of Christ, of whom one was a Russian named John (January 24), originally from Nizhny Novgorod, captured by the Tatars, and the other two, Stefan and Peter (March 24), newly converted Tatars. The saint expressed regret that these martyrs were not inscribed in the synod, which was read during the Week of Orthodoxy, and that eternal memory was not sung to them. In response to St. Hermogenes, the Patriarch sent a decree dated February 25, which ordered "for all Orthodox soldiers killed near Kazan and within Kazan, to hold a memorial service in Kazan and throughout the Kazan metropolis on the Sabbath day after the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and to enter them into the great synod, read in the Week of Orthodoxy," it was ordered to enter into that the same synod of the three martyrs of Kazan, and the day of their memory was entrusted to St. Hermogenes. The saint announced a patriarchal decree for his diocese, adding that liturgies and memorial services for the three Kazan martyrs should be served in all churches and monasteries and they should be commemorated at lithias and liturgies on January 24. Saint Hermogenes showed zeal for faith and firmness in observing church traditions, and took care of enlightening the Kazan Tatars by the faith of Christ.
In 1595, with the active participation of the saint, the discovery and discovery of the relics of Kazan wonderworkers took place: Saints Gurius, the first Archbishop of Kazan (October 4, December 5, June 20), and Varsonofy, Bishop of Tver (October 4, April 11). Tsar Theodore Ioannovich (1584-1598) ordered the construction of a new stone church in the Kazan Transfiguration Monastery on the site of the former one, where the saints were buried. When the coffins of the saints were found, Saint Hermogenes came with a council of the clergy, ordered the coffins to be opened and, seeing the incorruptible relics and clothes of the saints, informed the Patriarch and the tsar. With the blessing of Patriarch Job and at the behest of the tsar, the relics of the newly appeared miracle workers were placed in the new temple. Saint Hermogenes himself compiled the lives of Saints Gurius and Varsonofy.
For his outstanding archpastoral qualities, Metropolitan Hermogenes was elected to the primatial see, and on July 3, 1606, he was elevated by the Cathedral of the Saints to the Patriarchal Throne in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Metropolitan Isidore presented the Patriarch with the staff of St. Peter, the Moscow Wonderworker (commemoration of October 5, December 21, August 24), and the tsar presented the new Patriarch with a panagia decorated with precious stones, a white hood and a staff. According to the ancient order, Patriarch Hermogenes made a procession on a donkey.
Patriarch Hermogenes' activity coincided with a difficult period for the Russian state - the invasion of the impostor False Dimitri and the Polish king Sigismund III. The Primate devoted all his efforts to the service of the Church and the Fatherland. Patriarch Hermogenes was not alone in this feat: he was imitated and helped by selfless compatriots. With special inspiration, His Holiness the Patriarch opposed the traitors and enemies of the Fatherland who wanted to introduce Uniatism and Catholicism in Russia and eradicate Orthodoxy by enslaving the Russian people. When the impostor approached Moscow and settled in Tushino, Patriarch Hermogenes sent two messages to the rebellious traitors. In one of them he wrote: "...You have forgotten the vows of our Orthodox faith, in which we were born, baptized, brought up and grown up, violated the kiss of the cross and the oath to stand to death for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow state and fell for your false-imaginary tsar... My soul aches, my heart is sick, and all my insides are tormented, all my constituents are shuddering; I weep and cry out with sobs: Have mercy, have mercy, brethren and children, on your souls and your parents, departed and alive... Look at how our Fatherland is being plundered and ruined by strangers, what desecration holy icons and churches are being subjected to, how the blood of the innocent is being shed, crying out to God. Remember who you are raising your weapon against: is it not God who created you? Are you looking at your brothers? Aren't you ruining your Fatherland?... I conjure you in the Name of God, leave off from your undertaking while there is time, so that you do not perish to the end." In another letter, the Primate called for: "For God's sake, know yourself and turn, please your parents, your wives and children, and all of us; and we will pray to God for you..." Soon the righteous judgment of God was fulfilled over the Tushinsky thief: he suffered the same sad and inglorious fate as his predecessor; he was killed by his own confidants 11 December 1610. But Moscow continued to be in danger, as there were Poles and traitorous boyars loyal to Sigismund III. Russian Russian people were excited by the letters sent by Patriarch Hermogenes to cities and villages to liberate Moscow from its enemies and elect a legitimate Russian tsar. Muscovites raised an uprising, in response to which the Poles set fire to the city, and themselves took refuge in the Kremlin. Together with the Russian traitors, they forcibly removed the Holy Patriarch Hermogenes from the Patriarchal throne and imprisoned him in the Chudov Monastery. On Bright Monday, 1611, the Russian militia approached Moscow and began a siege of the Kremlin that lasted several months. The Poles besieged in the Kremlin have repeatedly sent ambassadors to the Patriarch demanding that he order the Russian militia to withdraw from the city, threatening with the death penalty. The saint answered firmly: "What are you threatening me for? I'm afraid of God alone. If all of you Lithuanian people come from the Moscow state, I will bless the Russian militia to go from Moscow, if you stay here, I will bless everyone to stand against you and die for the Orthodox faith." Already from prison, the Holy Martyr Hermogenes addressed a final message to the Russian people, blessing the liberation war against the conquerors. The Russian voivodes did not show consistency, so they could not take the Kremlin and free their Primate. He languished in severe imprisonment for more than nine months, and on February 17, 1612, he died a martyr's death from starvation.
The liberation of Russia, for which St. Hermogenes stood with such unshakable courage, was successfully completed by the Russian people. The body of Hieromartyr Hermogenes was buried in the Chudov Monastery, and in 1654 it was transferred to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. The glorification of Patriarch Hermogenes in the face of the saints took place on May 12, 1913.