Hieromartyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia

Hermogenes (Yermolai) was born before 1530. As a parish priest in Kazan he witnessed the finding of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in 1579, and in 1589 he became the first metropolitan of Kazan. In 1606 he was made Patriarch of Moscow. During the Time of Troubles, after Tsar Vasily Shuisky was deposed and Polish forces held the Kremlin, he refused, despite threats, to accept the Polish prince Władysław as tsar unless he became Orthodox, and in December 1610 he sent letters to the towns of Russia calling on them to rise.

He was confined in the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, from where he blessed the volunteer army of Kuzma Minin and Prince Pozharsky. He died there of hunger on 17 February 1612, months before Moscow was freed, and was glorified in 1913.