Vassili Ristkok

Holy Hieromartyr Vassili Ristkok was born on 26 December 1877 in Hellamaa on the island of Muhu, the son of a village blacksmith. He finished the church school and the seminary in Riga, and in 1903 the Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, with the degree of candidate in theology. For a time he taught in church schools in Georgia, at Kursk and at Vladimir. He was ordained deacon on 6 May 1915 and priest three days later at Kursk, by Archbishop Tikhon.

In 1920 he returned to Estonia. From 1921 he served at the church of Saint Nicholas in Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa, where he was archpriest from 1923 to 1941 and dean of Saaremaa and Muhu from 1925. He taught religion in schools and led charitable societies. According to an Estonian biography, he died on 6 January 1942 in Irkutsk.

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.