Hieromartyr
Archbishop Arkady (Ershov), Archbishop of Ekaterinburg
28 августа 1878 — 3 ноября 1937
Also known as: Аркадий Екатеринбургский, Александр Павлович Ершов
Hieromartyr Arkady (Alexander Pavlovich Ershov), Archbishop of Ekaterinburg — the son of a priest, repeatedly arrested in the 1920s-1930s, he temporarily administered the Ekaterinburg diocese in 1928-1929, and was shot on fabricated charges on November 3, 1937, in a labor camp near Kemerovo; canonized among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2000.
The Hieromartyr Arkady was born on August 28, 1878, in Kungur, Perm province, the son of a priest. He was repeatedly arrested: in 1924, in 1931 (with a three-year exile to Kazakhstan), in 1935 (sentenced to five years), and finally in 1937 on a fabricated charge of organizing a "counter-revolutionary group." In 1928-1929 he temporarily administered the Ekaterinburg diocese, and was later transferred to the Omsk and Cheboksary sees.
On October 28, 1937, he was sentenced to death; he was shot on November 3, 1937 (October 21 O.S.) in a corrective labor camp near Kemerovo, his burial place unknown. He was canonized by the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 "from the Perm diocese," among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. He is also venerated in the Synaxes of Ekaterinburg and Perm saints.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the original entry gave an incorrect life period of "18th-19th century" — the archbishop's actual dates are 1878-1937 (19th-20th century), confirmed by several independent sources.