Alexander Chekalov

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Chekalov (1888 to 1937) was a priest in the Tver province and was shot on 27 November 1937. He is commemorated on 27 November, on 7 February with the synaxis of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, and on 18 July with the saints of Tver.

He was born on 19 March 1888 in the village of Romanovo, Novotorzhok district, Tver province, into the family of the priest Leonid Chekalov. He finished the Tver seminary and was ordained priest. In 1930 his house and all his possessions were taken away. Expecting arrest, he blessed his children (two sons and two daughters) to leave, to escape persecution as a priest's children, while he himself stayed with his wife Alexandra and their youngest daughter, then nine. In the same year he was arrested and sentenced to be driven out of the village where he served. Not wanting to go far from his native places, he settled in the village of Zheleznikovo in the neighbouring Staritsa district, where his wife and daughter followed him. They had no means at all; Father Alexander served in the church and rented a room for himself and his family. Here the harsh persecution of the late thirties found him. After the first arrest and exile he knew from his own experience that in a state which professed militant atheism as its new religion he would always be persecuted and could be arrested at any moment; nonetheless he went on serving, ready for confession and, if the Lord should call, for martyrdom.

On 21 November 1937, after the service on the day of the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the other bodiless powers, the NKVD arrested him. On 23 November he was interrogated. Asked whether he admitted guilt of systematic counter-⁠revolutionary agitation, of discrediting the leaders of the party and the Soviet government, and of spreading provocative rumours about the perishing of the population and war, he answered to all that he did not admit guilt; he said only that he had sometimes said that war was coming soon and then things would not be good, but about the perishing of the population he had said nothing anywhere. Urged to give true testimony, he answered again: "I do not admit guilt." On 25 November the NKVD troika sentenced him to death, and on 27 November 1937 Father Alexander Chekalov was shot.