Aleksiy Mogilnitsky of Lelchitsy

Priest Alexis Mogilnitsky (Aleksei Savelievich, 1870-1937), also called Alexis of Lelchitsy, was an archpriest and the rector of the Holy Trinity church in Lelchitsy, Belarus, and was shot in 1937. He was glorified in 2010 as a locally venerated hieromartyr of the Orthodox Church of Belarus; he is commemorated on 20 October.

He was born on 17 October 1870 at Minsk, to Savely Mogilnitsky, a retired soldier and clerk, and Herminia. He attended the theological school and seminary at Minsk and finished in 1892; in the same year he married Anastasia Ivanovna Polkhovskaya and was appointed psalm-⁠reader in the Pinsk district. Ordained deacon on 31 August 1893 and priest on 5 September 1893 by Bishop Simeon of Minsk and Turov, he served at the Nativity of the Mother of God church in Veliky Bor, Rechitsa district, and was a teacher of religion. From 1896 he served at Turki, in the Bobruisk district, for nearly ten years, in a parish of over five thousand faithful in eleven villages, with two churches, parish schools and educational work. In 1898 he built a new wooden church there dedicated to the Holy Trinity, with a bell tower and parish buildings. In the Russo-⁠Japanese War he gathered gifts for the wounded and received the medal of Alexander III.

In 1907 he was transferred to Mozyr, to the cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael, and taught religion in two schools; in 1909 he was raised to archpriest. From 1920 he was rector at the Holy Trinity in Lelchitsy, Mozyr district. Despite the anti-⁠religious policy of Soviet power, he continued his service. In 1930 he was arrested on fabricated charges and sentenced to forced labour; after release he returned to Lelchitsy and resumed the services. In 1935 the church was closed and he began to serve in his own home, which became a house church attended by believers from the surrounding villages.

In the spring of 1937 some women of a neighbouring community opened a closed church on their own, and the case served as a pretext for new persecution: he was accused of "anti-⁠Soviet incitement." On 14 August 1937 he was arrested; at the inquiry he refused to admit guilt or to testify against others. On 27 September 1937 the special NKVD troika decided on the death penalty, and he was shot at Mozyr in October. He was rehabilitated in 1989 and glorified in 2010 as a locally venerated hieromartyr of the Orthodox Church of Belarus. Of his five children, his son Feodosy emigrated to the United States and taught at Boston University.