Abstract

Damascene (Tsedrik), Bishop of Glukhov and Nezhinsk, was a hierarch of the early 20th century and a hieromartyr to the faith. He lived a long and difficult life. Having an unusually strong desire to study and an exceptional talent for foreign languages, as a gifted preacher of Christianity amongst those of other faiths, he started out as an exceptional missionary. With an academic, scientific approach towards foreign cultures he came into contact with the Buriat, Tungus, Chinese and preached the Gospel to these peoples. The events of the Russian Revolution cut short his work as a missionary and scholar, and Bishop Damascene became one of the first defenders of the idea of True Orthodox Christianity in the Russian Church, as it was being swallowed up by renovationism and compromise and collaboration with the bolshevik authorities. This article is an overview of Bishop Damascene Tsedrik's biography before his consecration as bishop in 1923.