Alexander Ratkovsky

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Ratkovsky (1870 to 1937) was a priest in Toropets and was shot on 4 September 1937. He is commemorated on 4 September, on 7 February with the synaxis of the new martyrs, and on 18 July with the saints of Tver. He was numbered among the saints in the year 2000.

He was born in 1870 in the village of Oprosievo, Novorzhev district, Pskov province, into the family of the deacon Matthew Ratkovsky. In 1891 he finished the seminary and was ordained deacon, and in 1897 priest. In 1906 he was appointed to one of the churches in Toropets, where he served all his life until his martyr's death.

On 19 March 1931 he was arrested with other Orthodox, among them Bishop Tikhon (Rozhdestvensky) of Velikie Luki, priests, deacons, monks and laymen, whom the authorities united into an organization to which they gave the name "Strengthening of the Christian Movement". On 2 April the investigator questioned him; he said that his parents were of the clergy, that he had come to Toropets in 1906 and was serving to this day, that he had a family of eight: three sons and four daughters, and of the clergy and nuns of Toropets he said that he knew them and that they were now arrested, but that he could not name others. He was sentenced to three years of exile in Kazakhstan; after serving the sentence he returned to Toropets in 1934 and served at the same church. With his return church life revived: the parishioners saw in the returned priest a confessor of the holy Orthodox faith. Father Alexander arranged the services in the church according to the rule, nuns sang in the choir, and one of them he named warden. This was enough for a new arrest.

The NKVD arrested him on 23 July 1937 and imprisoned him in the Toropets prison; the next day the investigator asked him about his relations with Bishop John (Troyansky) and other priests. He answered that relations with the bishop were normal, that the bishop had been to his house and he to the bishop's, on religious matters. Asked whether he knew that the bishop distributed sweets to the children in church, to attract worshippers, he answered yes, but that he did not consider this anything abnormal. He also admitted that the bishop's sermons were something usual. The NKVD troika sentenced him to death and he was shot on 4 September 1937.