Plato of Elisavetgrad

Holy Hieromartyr Plato Kupchevsky was an archpriest in Elisavetgrad (today Kropyvnytskyi, in Ukraine), who died in prison in December 1931. He was glorified in 2022 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a locally venerated saint of the Kirovohrad diocese; our sources do not show a wider canonization. The data gives his feast as 15 June, but the source says only that on 15 June 2018 his relics were moved, not that this is his feast day.

Life

He was born on 19 September (2 October) 1866 in the village of Adzhigol (Odzhigol), near Ochakov, today in the Mykolaiv region, into a priestly family, in labour and prayer. In 1887 he graduated from the theological seminary of Odessa, was ordained priest the same year and appointed rector of the Annunciation church in the village of Kardashovka, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson governorate. He showed exceptional missionary gifts and also laboured much in the parish church school.

In 1889 he became rector of the church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Lyubomirovka, and in 1903 he was appointed rector of the cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God (the Greek church) in Elisavetgrad. For his zeal he was raised to the rank of archpriest in 1917.

Persecution

After the revolution and the civil war he was arrested in June 1923, but soon released. In 1926 he was appointed rector of the cemetery church of Saints Peter and Paul in Zinovievsk (today Kropyvnytskyi). In 1928, after the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of 1927, Father Plato joined the Josephite movement, whose followers did not accept that document. All the Josephite clergy of the city moved to the Peter and Paul church. In July of the following year he was arrested for anti-⁠Soviet agitation, but soon released.

On 15 January 1931 he was arrested again, together with many other Orthodox priests of Zinovievsk, accused of anti-⁠Soviet agitation and of organizing a counter-⁠revolutionary group of clerics; he was reproached for contact with exiles and for hostile attitudes toward the state. After severe torture, from the wounds and injuries received, he received the end of martyrdom in the city prison in December 1931.

Relics and glorification

Through the efforts of the parishioners of the Peter and Paul church, his body was ransomed from the prison and secretly buried in the old Kushchevsky cemetery, beside Holy Hieromartyr Nicholas Vinogradov. In 1997 relatives of those who had taken part in the burial pointed out the exact place, and a wooden cross was set on the grave. Memorial services were held there regularly, with many worshippers.

Because of the wide veneration by the faithful and many miracles at the grave, on 15 June 2018, with the blessing of Metropolitan Joasaph of Kirovohrad and Novomyrhorod, the relics were taken from the grave and placed in the church of the Elisavetinsky men's monastery in Kropyvnytskyi until the glorification. On 17 August 2021 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decided to number Archpriest Plato Kupchevsky among the locally venerated saints of the Kirovohrad diocese. On 6 February 2022, in the cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Kropyvnytskyi, the service of glorification took place.