Kappes, Aloysius

Father Kappes, born Nikolaus Kappes in 1885/1886 in Mariental, completed his studies to become a priest at the seminary in Saratov. He was ordained in 1910, and from 1910 to 1914 served the parish of Marienberg and also in the deanery in Seelmann. From 1914 to 1922, he served the parish of Marienfeld.
During the famines of the early 1920s, Father Kappes travelled in Germany and Argentina raising funds and gathering supplies to aid the masses starving along the Volga. In 1924, he became the administrator of the parish in Josefstal and in 1928 was appointed as the chief priest in the Kamyshin deanery. He was arrested on 14 July 1930 along with 19 other priests and was taken to the Butyrki prison in Moscow. There he was tried in connection with events that had taken place in 1917 and on 20 April 1931 was sentenced to death by shooting. This conviction was commuted to 10 years in a labor camp and shipped to Solovki Island. He was arrested again in 1937 while in the labor camp on Solovki Island, and following a quickly convened secret trial, was convicted, and on 1 November 1937 he was executed by a firing squad.