Archimandrite Smaragd (Latyshenko) killed Metropolitan Georgii of Warsaw on this day in 1923. In 1922, Patriarch Tikhon appointed Archbishop Georgii of Minsk to be Metropolitan of Warsaw. The see there had been vacant since 1915. Metropolitan Georgii was evacuated from Novorossisk to Belgrade with a number of bishops, who later on organized the ROCOR. He lived in Italy before arriving in Poland. In the summer of 1922, while Patriarch Tikhon was under arrest, Metropolitan Georgii assembled a council of Orthodox bishops in Poland. The Church in Poland acted autonomously based on Decree No 362 of October 7/20, 1920. At the same time, Metropolitan Georgii was ready to cooperate with the Polish authorities, which, like the Bolsheviks, regarded the Russian Church, as a remnant of Russian imperialism. Archimandrite Smaragd was the son of a priest from Lithuania. He graduated from St. Petersburg Academy among the first students of his class. However, he did not take a teaching position there, but rather returned to Western Russia. At the time of the Russian Revolution, Fr. Smaragd (Archbishop Evlogii of Volynia had by then tonsured him a monk) was the rector of the seminary in Chełm (Holm), now in Poland. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Orthodox brotherhoods in Rzeczpospolita demonstrated mistrust towards their bishops and thus involuntarily contributed toward their conversion to Greek Catholicism. Archimandrite Smaragd openly criticized Metropolitan Georgii, who suspended him. This suspension became an obstacle to Fr. Smaragd’s episcopal consecration (Patriarch Tikhon wanted to have him appointed a vicar bishop of Minsk Diocese). Archimandrite Smaragd decided to give Metropolitan Georgii a “last chance.” After a two-hour conversation, when the Metropolitan did not show any remorse, Smaragd killed him with a revolver. Instead of preventing the disassociation of the Polish Church from that within Russia, this movement expedited the process. Bishop Dionisii (Valedinskii) was elected Metropolitan. Consent for the approval of this appointment was obtained from Constantinople and not from Moscow. Smaragd served only a twelve-year sentence, thanks to a skillful defense mounted by his lawyers, and then departed to Czechoslovakia. Reportedly during this two hour conversation Metropolitan Georgii expressed his disbelief in afterlife. I wonder what kind of belief in afterlife Archimandrite Smaragd had. How did he justify his act? Relevant Resources: Mikhail Zyzykin, “Autocephaly and Principles of its Application with Reference to the Church of Poland,”Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. | 
