Arkady Yershov

Holy Hieromartyr Arkady Yershov (in the world Alexander Pavlovich Yershov) was born in 1878 at Kungur, in the Perm province, into a priest's family, was archbishop of Sverdlovsk and was shot on 3 November 1937 in a camp near Kemerovo. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in August 2000, in the synaxis of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia. He is remembered on 21 October, on the old calendar, a day which corresponds to 3 November.

The priest

He graduated from the theological seminary in Perm in 1901 and in 1902 was ordained priest. He served in various parishes of the diocese of Perm, in the village of Bannovskoe in the Kungur district and in the village of Shlyapniki in the Orda district. From 1913 he was dean of the third Krasnoufimsk district. In 1915 he was appointed priest of the 75th rifle regiment and then dean of the 12th Siberian rifle division. He was evacuated because of illness and came to his place of service, in the village of Stefanovskoe in the diocese of Perm. In 1918 he was widowed.

He was parish priest of the All Saints church in Kungur and zealously opposed the Renovationist movement. In 1923 he was elected chairman of the diocesan council and, at an assembly of the Orthodox clergy and laity, was recommended to Patriarch Tikhon to be appointed bishop of Kungur, vicar of the diocese of Perm. By decision of Patriarch Tikhon and the Holy Synod of 22 March 1924 he was tonsured into the mantle and raised to archimandrite.

The bishop

From 30 March 1924 he was bishop of Kungur, vicar of the diocese of Perm, and from 28 July 1924 he was temporary head of the Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) diocese. A report of the plenipotentiary for the Renovationist diocese of Yekaterinburg, of 3 September 1924, shows that in July and August the situation of the diocese had greatly changed: the influence of the "Tikhonites" had spread to the diocesan city itself, all the city parishes with their clergy had joined the Tikhonite bishop Arkady, who lived at Kungur, and only one parish, that of the Holy Spirit, had remained loyal to the Renovationist Synod.

Thanks to Bishop Arkady's work, the Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil and Shadrinsk districts became a support for Patriarch Tikhon in the Urals. He preached much and took part in disputes with atheists. From 1925 he was bishop of Kungur, on an independent see. From February 1927 he was again temporary head of the Sverdlovsk and Irbit diocese. He supported Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky). From 23 January 1929 he was bishop of Omsk, where he arrived in March 1929, and from 23 October 1930 bishop of Cheboksary. From November 1931 he was bishop of Sverdlovsk and Irbit. After two weeks he was arrested and taken to Omsk, where he was sentenced to three years of exile in Kazakhstan. In April 1935 he was released and was raised to archbishop. He was removed from church administration and was not allowed to go to his see, in Sverdlovsk. He lived practically under house arrest in the settlement of Balmoshnaya, near Perm. From 30 September 1935 he was archbishop of Melekess and administrator of the Ulyanovsk diocese, but on 29 September 1935 he had been arrested, sentenced to five years in prison and taken to Siberia, and on 22 October 1935 he was retired.

Martyrdom

In 1937 he was arrested in the camp, on the charge of belonging to a counter-⁠revolutionary group of bishops and priests, who were said to have carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation among the prisoners. He did not admit guilt. The troika of the UNKVD for the Kemerovo region sentenced him to death by decision of 28 October 1937. He was shot on 3 November 1937 in a camp not far from Kemerovo. The place where he was buried is not known.