Joseph Arkharov

Holy Hieromartyr Joseph Arkharov was a priest in Soviet Russia, a confessor of the faith in the camp, and he received a martyr's death by shooting in 1937. He belongs to the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church.

Joseph Ivanovich Arkharov was born on 1 April 1874 in the village of Rogachevo, in the Dmitrov district of Moscow province. His father owned a tannery, and Joseph worked in this trade until 1930, when he received priestly ordination. He had also been warden of the church.

In 1933 he was tried by the people's court of Verei and sentenced to two years in prison. On 1 January 1936 he was arrested again, and on 2 January an NKVD troika sentenced him to three years in a labour camp. He arrived in the Karlag camp in Kazakhstan on 8 March 1936. There he worked as a cashier in the financial section.

At the end of 1936 and the beginning of 1937, denunciations against him arrived. It was said that he advised prisoners to read the Gospel or the Psalter, that he announced that the churches would be reopened, and that he liked to sing divine hymns. One witness stated that he loved the Church, kept his priestly cassock in the camp, and refused to hand it over for a stage play, saying that he would not allow the faith to be mocked. It was also said that he bore Soviet power as a punishment sent by God to people.

He was arrested in the camp on 3 September 1937, charged with counter-⁠revolutionary agitation. The charge included words attributed to him about an approaching war and the fall of Soviet power. He did not admit guilt. The NKVD troika of the Karaganda region sentenced him to death on 14 September 1937, and the sentence was carried out on 21 September (8 September, old style) 1937. The place of burial is unknown. On 3 April 1990 Father Joseph was rehabilitated by the prosecutor of the Karaganda region.

He is commemorated on the first Sunday after 25 January (7 February, new style), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 22 September.