Veniamin Frolov Bishop of Baikinsky, vicar of the Ufa diocese. Figure of the Russian Orthodox Church. Date of Birth: 01.01.1862 Country: Russia

1. Early Life and Education
2. Monastic Life and Priestly Service
3. Political and Religious Turmoil
4. Later Life and Imprisonment
5. Release and Fate

Early Life and Education

Venjamin, born Venjamin Fyodorovich Frolov around 1862 or 1864 in the village of Ichkinskoye, Perm Governorate, came from a peasant family. He completed primary education and became a church choir singer in 1886.

Monastic Life and Priestly Service

In 1892, Venjamin moved to Perm, where he was tonsured into monasticism and ordained a hierodeacon and later a hieromonk. In 1904, he became the abbot of the Nativity of the Theotokos Chuvash Monastery and was elevated to the rank of igumen. During his tenure, he engaged in missionary work among the Chuvash people and oversaw the construction of a stone church in the monastery. In 1915, he became the dean of monasteries in the second district of the Perm diocese and was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

Political and Religious Turmoil

After the 1917 Revolution, Venjamin was dismissed from his monastic post and resided there as a pensioner. Following the looting of the monastery, he lived in the St. George Women's Monastery in the Birsk district (1918-1923). In 1923, he was secretly consecrated by Orthodox bishops, including Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky), as Bishop of Baikino, Vicar of the Ufa diocese.

Venjamin actively opposed the Renovationist movement, ordained priests from among the peasantry, and issued appeals to the faithful. He disapproved of the subsequent secret episcopal consecrations for the Ufa diocese performed by Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky) in 1926.

Later Life and Imprisonment

In 1926, Venjamin retired to the St. George Monastery, which had been transformed into a collective farm. From 1928, he lived in the village of Baiki and occasionally served at the local church.

On November 14, 1929, he was arrested on charges of promoting religious sentiments among the peasantry and disrupting collectivization. Despite denying the accusations, he was sentenced by the OGPU troika in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to five years in labor camps, later commuted to exile in the Northern Territory.

Release and Fate

Venjamin was released early on April 7, 1934, due to disability. However, there is no reliable information about his subsequent life. A report by Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky) that Bishop Venjamin was still alive in Yakutia in 1956 is considered apocryphal.