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Diocese of Saratov and Volsk
Diocese of Saratov and Volsk
	Church of the Protection of the Theotokos in Saratov
Location
Deaneries	15
Headquarters	Saratov
Statistics
Parishes	190
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Sui iuris church	Russian Orthodox Church
Established	October 16, 1799
Cathedral	Holy Trinity Cathedral
Language	Old Church Slavonic
Current leadership
Governance	Eparchy
Bishop	Ignatius Deputatov ; since 25 August 2020
Website
	www.eparhia-saratov.ru

Diocese of Saratov (Russian: Саратовская и Вольская епархия) is an eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church based in Saratov. The eparchy's cathedral is the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Saratov.

History

On October 16, 1799, the independent Saratov and Penza diocese was separated from Tambov. However, “due to the lack of convenient premises for bishops and a spiritual consistory in Saratov,” the first bishop of the new see, Gaiy (Tokaov), achieved the move of the see to Penza and in 1803 the name of the diocese was changed to Penza and Saratov.

The Secret Committee on Cases of Dissenters drew special attention of Emperor Nicholas I to the strengthening of the schism in the Saratov Oblast, as a result of which the sovereign ordered on October 20, 1828 to restore an independent department in Saratov. The Holy Synod decided on October 21 that the Saratov diocese should be third-class (after Penza), called Saratov and Tsaritsyn, and that the new bishop should initially reside in the Saratov Transfiguration Monastery. On November 3 of the same year, the decision of the Synod was approved by the emperor.

After the October Revolution, persecution of the Church began, reaching its peak in the 1930s. By the end of the 1930s, there was not a single functioning church left in the Saratov diocese; most of the clergy were either shot or were in camps and exile.

During wartime, church-government relations began to gradually change, but the bishop appointed to Saratov in 1941, after a four-year break, could not arrive in his cathedral city, since there were no functioning churches either in it or in the Saratov Oblast. The revival of church life in the diocese began in the fall of 1942.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of October 5–6, 2011, the Diocese of Balashov and Diocese of Pokrov were separated from the Saratov diocese.

Deaneries

The diocese is divided into 15 church districts:^[1]

Atkar Deanery - Priest Roman Bolotnov
Bazarno-Karabulak Deanery - Priest Nikolai Protasov
Baltai Deanery - Priest Vadim Derzhavin
Volsk deanery - Archpriest Alexy Zemtsov
Resurrection Deanery - Priest Sergius Tuigin
Novoburas deanery - priest John Kovach
Petrovsky Deanery - Priest Sergiy Protasov
Saratov Eastern Deanery - Priest Alexander Borodovitsyn
Saratov Northern Deanery - Priest Oleg Grushin
Saratov Western Deanery - Priest Dimitry Lazutin
Saratov Southern Deanery - Archpriest Alexander Domrachev
Saratov Central Deanery - Priest Alexander Chebotarev
Tatishchevsky deanery - priest Alexy Novichkov
Khvalynsk deanery - Archpriest Pavel Usov
Deanery of the monasteries - Hieromonk Seraphim (Baranov)

Bishops

Gaius (Takaov) (October 16, 1799 – December 4, 1803)
Moses (Bogdanov-Antipov-Platonov): November 29, 1828 – March 12, 1832
Jacob (Vecherkov): March 27, 1832 – January 13, 1847
Athanasius (Drozdov): January 13, 1847 – April 15, 1856
Joannicius (Gorski): April 15, 1856 – July 17, 1860
Euthymius (Belikov): August 29, 1860 – October 17, 1863
Joannicius (Rudnev): January 13, 1864 – July 13, 1873
Tikhon (Pokrovsky): July 13, 1873 – March 6, 1882
Paul (Wilczynski): April 5, 1882 – December 16, 1889
Abraham (Letnitsky): December 16, 1889 – October 24, 1893
Nicholas (Nalimov): November 13, 1893 – January 16, 1899
John (Kratirov): January 16, 1899 – March 12, 1903
Hermogenes (Dolganov): March 21, 1903 – January 17, 1912
Alexis (Dorodnitsyn): January 17, 1912 – July 30, 1914
Palladium (Dobronravov): July 30, 1914 – August 25, 1917
Dosifej (Protopopov): August 25, 1917 – October 27, 1927
Andrew (Komarov): January 14, 1924 – March 6, 1926
Thaddeus (Uspensky): October 27, 1927 – 1928
Seraphim (Alexandrov): June 15, 1928 – August 11, 1933
Athanasius (Malinin): August 11, 1933 – September 30, 1935
Seraphim (Silichev): September 30, 1935 – 1936
Benjamin (Kuznetsov) (September 23, 1936 – October 1937)
Andrew (Komarov) (December 9, 1941 – May 28, 1942 and July 13 – August 14, 1942)
Gregory (Chukov): October 14, 1942 – May 26, 1944
Paisius (Obraztsov) (February 14, 1945 – January 13, 1947)
Boris (Vik): January 13, 1947 – March 4, 1949
Philip (Stavitsky): October 21, 1949 – December 12, 1952 (with the title of "Astrakhan and Saratov")
Gurias (Yegorov): January 28, 1953– July 1954
Benjamin (Milov): February 4, 1955 – August 2, 1955
Job (Kresovich): 1955
Benjamin (Fedchenkov): November 28, 1955 – February 20, 1958
Palladius (Sherstennikov): February 20, 1958 – May 29, 1963
Bartholomew (Gondarovsky): May 29, 1963 – December 22, 1964
Pimen (Kmielevsky): January 10, 1965 – December 10, 1993
Nectarius (Korobov): March 26, 1994 – November 19, 1994
Alexander (Timofeyev): July 18, 1995 – January 7, 2003
Sergeius (Poletkin): January 7, 2003 – August 19, 2003
Longin (Korchagin) (August 19, 2003 - August 25, 2020)
Ignatius (Deputatov) (since August 25, 2020)