Metropolitan Sergii received permission from the Soviet authorities to organize his Synod on this day in 1927. The All-Russian Council of 1917-18 elected members of the Episcopal Synod as an executive arm of the Council. Since the Bolsheviks did not permit the assembly of a council, the Synod ceased to exist with the death of St. Patriarch Tikhon in 1925. St. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy became Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal See. At the end of 1925, he was arrested. Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) became Deputy of the Locum Tenens. In line with Patriarch Tikhon and Metropolitan Peter, Metropolitan Sergii continued soliciting feedback from bishops, thus acting in a conciliar spirit. At the end of 1926, he was arrested. Not all of the minutes of his interrogation are yet available for researchers. In the Spring of 1927, Metropolitan Sergii was released, and he received the right to reside in Moscow. Moreover, the authorities gave him the right to assemble the Synod. Metropolitan Sergii invited the following hierarchs to join this new organ: St. Arseny Metropolitan of Novgorod, Metropolitan Seraphim of Tver, Archbishops Sylvester of Vologod and Aleksei of Khutyn', Sevastian of Kostorma, Philip of Zvenigorod, Bishop Constantine of Sumy. The foundation of this Synod became controversial because its authority originated not from the Council but from the Deputy of the Locum Tenens, whose job description under normal circumstances would be to deliver the church to the next Council. There were reasonable suspicions that Metropolitan Sergii agreed to participate in the "game" offered by his jailers. Since the 1990s, St. Tikhon's University for the Humanities in Moscow (PSTGU) has conducted meticulous work collecting data about New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. PSTGU was essential to give a voice to these New Martyrs who opposed Metropolitan Sergii's new course. Now, with the intensification of the conversation in Russia about the possible canonization of Patriarch Sergii in Russia, I hope that PSTGU will explain all the historical problems connected to this canonization. | 
