Aristarkh (Sitalo) of Okhtyrka

Venerable Martyr Aristarkh (in the world Alexander Sitalo, 1862-1919) was an archimandrite and abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery at Okhtyrka, killed by the Bolsheviks in 1919. He was glorified locally in the Sumy diocese (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) by decision of the Synod of 9 December 2020, and the service of glorification was held on 25 September 2021 in the cathedral of Sumy; he is commemorated on 5 (18) July, the day of his martyrdom.

He was born in 1862 and was raised in the Orthodox faith, often going on pilgrimage to monasteries. On 11 June 1891 he entered the Holy Trinity Monastery at Okhtyrka as a novice, and on 19 April 1893 was tonsured a monk with the name Aristarkh. Less than a year after his tonsure he was entrusted with the duties of treasurer, in which he was confirmed in 1902. He was ordained hierodeacon in 1894 and hieromonk in 1895; his service record says: "very capable, excellent conduct."

On 1 November 1905 he was elected abbot of the monastery, on 7 December an imperial decree named him abbot, and on 20 December the Holy Synod confirmed the decision. On 1 January 1906 he was raised to hegumen by Bishop Eugene Berezhkov of Sumy. The monastery was then in full flourish, with nearly a hundred buildings and a hundred and fifty brothers. Through love, prayer and unceasing care, Abbot Aristarkh created in it a spiritual atmosphere that enlarged and strengthened the community. On 14 May 1911 Archbishop Arseny Bryantsev of Kharkiv raised him to archimandrite, and in 1912 he was dean of the monasteries of the Kharkiv diocese.

On 7 January 1919 the Bolsheviks seized the monastery, letting the brothers work the land and supply them. The brothers endured every sort of mockery: a theatre was set up in the refectory, concerts were held during services, and the church was profaned. On 30 June 1919 Archimandrite Aristarkh was arrested and put in the prison at Okhtyrka and, after torture, was shot on 18 July 1919 in a pine forest outside the town, and buried in a common grave, barely covered with earth.

On 27 July, when the White army drove the Bolsheviks out of Okhtyrka, the monks took the abbot's body from the grave. Hierodeacon Mitrofan recounted that there were five bodies in the grave, and that the abbot's skull was shattered. The White army's commission of inquiry judged him "without doubt a victim of the Red terror," and Archbishop George Yaroshevsky, temporary administrator of the Kharkiv diocese, wrote that he had been cruelly tortured by the Bolsheviks.

The Synod numbered him among the locally venerated saints of the Sumy diocese on 9 December 2020. On 25 September 2021, the day of the second finding of the Malaya Chernecchina icon of the Saviour "Bread of Life," Metropolitan Onuphry led the rite of glorification in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Sumy.