Eugene (Zernov) was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who held the see of Nizhny Novgorod and was shot during the Soviet persecution in 1937. Born Semyon Alekseevich Zernov in 1877 into a deacon's family in the Moscow Governorate, he received monastic tonsure with the name Eugene in 1900 and spent his early ministry in theological education before his episcopal consecration in 1913. His later years were marked by repeated arrest, imprisonment, and exile, culminating in his execution in the Karaganda labor camp. He is commemorated on September 7 and is numbered among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
After graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1898 and entering the Moscow Theological Academy, Zernov was tonsured a monk in 1900 and ordained hieromonk in 1902. He taught and served as inspector at the Chernihiv Theological Seminary, and in 1906 was appointed rector of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary with the rank of archimandrite. He was consecrated Bishop of Kirensk, a vicariate of Irkutsk, in 1913, and in 1914 was transferred to the see of the Amur and Blagoveshchensk, where he later took part in the Holy Synod during 1917 and 1918.
With the consolidation of Soviet power, Zernov was first arrested in 1923 following a vigil service and was elevated to archbishop by Patriarch Tikhon. Arrested again in 1924, he was imprisoned at the Solovetsky camp from 1924 to 1927, where in July 1926 he was among the bishops who helped draft the Solovki Epistle, an appeal to the Soviet government on behalf of the imprisoned hierarchy. Following further exile he served at Kotelnich, and in May 1934 was appointed to the see of Nizhny Novgorod (then renamed Gorky).
He was arrested once more in 1935 on a charge of anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to confinement in the Karaganda labor camp. In September 1937 a regional troika condemned him to death, and he was executed by shooting on September 20, 1937. He was canonized among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.
