Confessor Confessor Raphael (Sheychenko) of Optina

CRITICAL: category corrected from "venerable" to "confessor" — the saint was not executed but died a natural death after release from the camp; his official title of veneration is "venerable-confessor," closest in this database to "confessor."

Born 1891 in the village of Veliko-Mikhailovka, Novy Oskol district, Kursk province, to a peasant family, baptized Rodion. Completed parish and zemstvo schools, worked as a shoemaker like his father. Conscripted in 1913, trained as a military veterinary paramedic, served in the 6th Volynsky Uhlan Regiment until demobilization in 1918.

Entered Optina Pustyn in 1918. Tonsured a monk in 1928 by Hieromonk Macarius of Optina with the name Raphael; later ordained deacon, and in 1944, hieromonk.

Arrested August 18, 1930, amid a wave of arrests following unrest in Kozelsk; sentenced November 27, 1930, to 10 years in labor camps (Vishera, Dmitrov, Murmansk region, Solikamsk), where he secretly continued his pastoral ministry despite NKVD surveillance. Released on disability grounds in 1943. From 1944 to 1949 he served as priest at the Annunciation Church in Kozelsk, restoring the church and caring for parishioners.

Arrested again in 1949 on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation," sentenced to another 10 years; released in the 1955 amnesty and returned to Kozelsk. Died June 19, 1957, of pneumonia and a stroke. His relics were uncovered June 22, 2005, by the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, and now rest in the Transfiguration Church of Optina Pustyn. He was glorified April 11, 2006, among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.