Holy New Martyr Alexander Shchukin, Archbishop of Semipalatinsk, was killed on this day in 1937. Archbishop Alexander was born as Ivan Vasilʹevich in 1891 into a clergy family in Porkhov, Pskov Region. Having graduated from an elementary school for clergy children, he went to seminary in Riga and then graduated from Moscow Theological Academy in 1886. As result of the German occupation of Riga during World War I, Ivan’s family moved to Nizhnii Novgorod on the Volga River. There, Archbishop Evdokim (Meshcherskii), a bishop in America until 1917, ordained him a priest. At that time, the Russian Church, in response to persecution, was consecrating new bishops. With his fidelity to the Church and the education he had received, Ivan was an ideal candidate. In September 1923, Holy Patriarch Tikhon nominated Ivan as Bishop of Makarʹev, a vicar bishop of Nizhnii Novgorod Diocese. The same month, he was tonsured a monk and consecrated. Bishop Alexander refused to keep a low profile. He cared about children who were deprived of religious education. He did not shy away from confronting militant atheism. During the fall of 1928, Bishop Alexander was arrested, and the authorities made only one condition for releasing him: stop your sermons. “I am not going to give my soul to you,” said the bishop. As a result, Vladyka Alexander spent three years as a prisoner in Solovki. Bishop Alexander recognized Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) and, after being released from prison, served in Oryol. He took several other assignments until he became Archbishop of Semipalatinsk and Ustʹ-Kamenogosk (in Kazakhstan) in 1936. All along, his sister was urging him to live quietly, but the Bishop refused. In 1937, he was arrested. Vladyka withstood all of the interrogations outstandingly, refusing to consider himself guilty or to implicate any other people. According to Soviet laws, citizens were allowed to profess their religion and could not be tried for their faith. Bishop Alexander was accused of counter-revolutionary agitation and espionage. I understand that he was martyred in Kazakhstan. There is no information about his burial place. Early in 1960, a funeral service was held in the village of Lyskovo in Nizhnii Novgorod district, where his family used to live. Bishop Alexander of Semipalatinsk was canonized in 2000 by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. |
