Bl. Alexij Saritski

Blessed Alexij Saritski was a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Church who ministered secretly to Latin and other Catholics who had been deported deep into Soviet territory after WW II. He was caught and imprisoned, where he died of malnutrition on October 30, 1963. He was beatified in 2005 and his feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church in Kazakhstan and Russia on October 30th, and in the Ukrainian Catholic Church together with the Ukrainian Martyrs on June 27th.

(This excerpt from the book Dominus est written by Bp. Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan, recounts the pastoral work of Bl. Alexij in that region during the Soviet era. The bishop's own family were German Catholics deported by the Soviets to this area. This particular excerpt recounts the experience of his mother, Maria Schneider, as told to him. He was born in 1961, so was an infant during the second account.)

In January of 1958, in the city of Krasnokamsk near Perm in the Ural Mountains, Father Alexij, from his place of exile, suddenly and secretly arrived in the city of Krasnokamsk, coming from Karaganda in Kazakhstan.

Father Alexij worked so that the greatest number of faithful could be prepared for the reception of Holy Communion, making himself available to hear the confessions of the faithful literally day and night, without sleeping and without eating. The faithful begged him, “Father, you must eat and sleep!” But he would reply, “I can’t, because the police can arrest me at any moment, and then many people would be left without confession and, therefore, without Communion.” After everyone had gone to confession, Father Alexij began to celebrate the Holy Mass. Suddenly, a voice resounded, “The police are coming!” Maria Schneider, who was attending the Mass, said to the priest, “Father, I can hide you; let’s flee!” The woman led the priest into a house outside the German ghetto and hid him in a room, also bringing him something to eat, and said: “Father, now you can finally eat and rest a bit; and when it gets dark, we will flee to a nearby city.” Father Alexij was sad, because, though all had made their confessions, they could not receive Holy Communion, because the Holy Mass, which had just begun, had been interrupted by the police raid. Maria Schneider said: “Father, all the faithful will make a Spiritual Communion with great faith and much devotion, and we hope that you will be able to return to give us Holy Communion.”

With the coming of evening, preparations were made for the flight. Maria Schneider left her two little children (a two-year-old boy and a six-month-old girl) with her mother and called on Pulcheria Koch (the aunt of her husband). The two women took Father Alexij and led him for twelve kilometers through the forest, in the snow and the cold, 30 degrees below zero.[1] The women arrived at a little train station, bought a ticket for Father Alexij, and sat with him in the waiting room; the train was not due for an hour. Suddenly, the door opened. A policeman entered and spoke directly to Father Alexij: “Where are you heading?” The priest was not able to respond, out of fear—not for his own life, but for the life and fate of the young mother, Maria Schneider. The young woman herself responded to the policeman: “This is our friend, and we are accompanying him. Look, here is his ticket,” and she handed the ticket over to the policeman. The policeman, looking at the ticket, told the priest: “Please do not enter the last car, because it will be dislodged from the rest of the train at the next station. Bon voyage! ” The policeman exited the waiting room. Father Alexij looked at Maria Schneider and said, “God has sent us an angel! I will never forget what you have done for me. If God will permit it, I will return to give all of you Holy Communion, and in my every Mass I will pray for you and your children.”

After a year, Father Alexij was able to return to Krasnokamsk. This time he could celebrate the Holy Mass and give Holy Communion to the faithful. Maria Schneider asked him a favor: “Father, could you leave me a consecrated Host because my mother is gravely ill and wants to receive Communion before dying?” Father Alexij left a consecrated Host, on condition that Holy Communion be administered to the woman with the greatest possible respect. Maria Schneider promised to act in this way. Before moving with her family to Kirghistan, Maria administered Holy Communion to her sick mother. In order to do this, Maria put on new white gloves and with a tweezers gave Holy Communion to her mother. Afterwards, she burned the envelope in which the consecrated Host had been kept.

The families of Maria Schneider and Pulcheria Koch later moved to Kirghistan. In 1962, Father Alexij secretly visited Kirghistan and found Maria and Pulcheria in the city of Tokmak. He celebrated Holy Mass in the house of Maria Schneider and, another time, in the house of Pulcheria Koch. Out of gratitude to Pucheria, this old woman who had helped him escape in the darkness and cold of winter in the Ural Mountains, Father Alexij left her a consecrated Host, giving this precise instruction: “I leave you a consecrated Host. Practice the devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the First Friday for nine consecutive months. Every First Friday of the month, expose the Blessed Sacrament in your house, inviting for adoration persons who are absolutely trustworthy, with everything carried out in the greatest secrecy. After the ninth month, you must consume the Host, but do so with great reverence!” And so was it done. For nine months, there was clandestine Eucharistic Adoration at Tokmak. Maria Schneider was also among the female worshipers.

Kneeling before a little Host, all the adoring women, these truly Eucharistic women, ardently desired to receive Holy Communion. But, unfortunately, there was only a little Host and at the same time many people who desired to receive Holy Communion. For this reason, Father Alexij had decided that at the end of the nine months only Pulcheria would receive Holy Communion, with the other women making a Spiritual Communion. Nevertheless, these Spiritual Communions were very precious, because they rendered these “Eucharistic” women capable of transmitting to their children, as if with their maternal milk, a profound faith and great love for the Eucharist.

The entrustment of this little consecrated Host to Pulcheria Koch in the city of Tokmak in Kirghistan was the last pastoral action of Blessed Alexij Saritski. Immediately after his return to Karaganda from his missionary journey in Kirghistan, in April of 1962, Father Alexij was arrested by the secret police and placed in the concentration camp of Dolinka, near Karaganda. After much mistreatment and humiliation, Father Alexij obtained the palm of martyrdom ex aerumnis carceris (from the sufferings of prison) on October 30, 1963. His liturgical memorial is celebrated on this day in all the Catholic churches of Kazakhstan and Russia; the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church celebrates it together with other martyrs on June 27. He was a Eucharistic saint, who could educate Eucharistic women. These Eucharistic women were like flowers that grew up in the darkness and desert of a clandestine existence, thus keeping the Church truly alive.

Source: “Dominus est,” Newman Press, 2009, 2012. Original in Italian, Vatican Press.