Alexander Agafonnikov

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Agafonnikov (1881 to 1937) was a priest in the Vyatka province and the Moscow region and was shot on 14 October 1937, at the Butovo firing range. He is commemorated on 14 October, on 21 October with the saints of Vyatka, on 29 May with the new martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September with the saints of Moscow.

He was born on 3 December 1881 in the village of Medyany, in the Vyatka district, into the family of the psalm-⁠reader Vladimir Agafonnikov. After finishing the fifth class of the Vyatka seminary in 1903, he was a teacher at a parish school. On 18 June 1904 he was ordained deacon at the church in Kyrchany, and on 29 October 1906 priest at the church in Toikino, Sarapul district, where he also taught religion at the district school. In 1914 he was moved to Spaso-⁠Talitsy, Orlov district, as teacher of religion at the girls' and boys' schools. In 1917 he was elected dean of the first district, then served at Vyatka and, from 1919, at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the Saviour in Kotelnich, where he was soon appointed dean.

Kotelnich and exile

In 1923 the deans' assembly decided to ask Patriarch Tikhon to establish a separate vicariate at Kotelnich. Father Alexander proposed as candidate for the episcopal see the hieromonk Flavian (Sorokin). At the beginning of 1924 Flavian was consecrated bishop of Kotelnich, vicar of the Vyatka diocese. Father Alexander was his closest helper. After about a year the bishop was arrested and exiled. From exile he wrote to Father Alexander that he was in great want, and Father Alexander sent him money every month. At that time the struggle of the Renovationists with the Orthodox began at Kotelnich; the Renovationists were supported by the Soviet authorities, and the OGPU gathered information on their most uncompromising opponents. At the end of 1926 the OGPU drew up a conclusion on Father Alexander, writing that, as dean, he had gathered around him clergy and nuns who held to the "old Orthodoxy" and that at services for "sufferers for the Orthodox faith" he boldly proclaimed many years to the exiles.

Father Alexander was arrested on the eve of Christmas, 6 January 1927. He was charged with having, after Flavian's arrest, illegally headed the diocesan administration of Kotelnich, collected money for the exiles and sent it to them, gathering around him people who wished to help Metropolitan Cyril, exiled in the town. He was questioned on 25 January. In his answers he said that he had sent money out of duty and compassion, and that the sums collected for the needs of the diocese should be at the disposal of Bishop Flavian, since they had no other bishop. The money for the repair of churches had been spent as intended. On 27 March 1927 the Special Council of the OGPU Collegium sentenced him, together with Metropolitan Cyril (Smirnov), to three years of exile in Siberia. After the exile he was forbidden to live in several large cities, among which was not Vyatka, where he lived three years under OGPU supervision.

Arrest and martyrdom

At the end of the supervision, he accepted the proposal of his brother, Protopresbyter Nicholas, to move to the Moscow region, and was appointed to the church of Saint Elijah in the village of Lemeshevo, Podolsk district. On 14 September 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Serpukhov. Questioned the next day, he did not admit guilt. False witnesses were heard, one a collective farm watchman, another a worker and party member, who said that the priest had spoken against the Soviet authorities. The investigator repeated the charges; Father Alexander said that he had not spoken so and that, if there had been any talk, it was about the service at the graves. On 10 October 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was shot on 14 October and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.