Theodor Petai

Holy New Martyr Theodor Petai was born on 19 January 1890 in Varstu, Võrumaa, and was a teacher and church precentor. He was a reader and teacher at Mõniste-⁠Ritsiku, then from 1920 to 1941 head of the primary school at Vastse-⁠Roosa; he founded the local library (1921) and choirs, and from 1916 until his arrest he led the choir of the church of Saint John the Baptist at Mõniste-⁠Ritsiku. He was also head of the Defence League in Varstu.

In 1919 he married the teacher Anna Veiding. He was arrested on 14 June 1941, sentenced to death on 12 March 1942 and shot on 20 April 1942 in the Sosva camp in the Sverdlovsk region. His wife and his daughters Helvi and Maret were deported to the Tomsk region.

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided on 22 February 2012, on the proposal of the Orthodox Church of Estonia, to canonize eleven clergy and laity who suffered for the faith in the first years of the Soviet occupation: five priests, two deacons, a presbytera and three laypeople. The decision was read on 17 May 2012 in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Tallinn. They are remembered on 14 June, in memory of the deportations of 1941. The sources keep rather few details about the fate of each: some were executed, others died in prison or in camps.