Alexander Buravtsev

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Buravtsev (1886 to 1937) was a priest at the Epiphany cathedral at Dorogomilovo, in Moscow, and was shot on 22 December 1937 at Butovo, together with Archpriest Basil Yagodin. They are commemorated on 22 December, on 29 May with the new martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September with the saints of Moscow.

On 11 December 1937 the entire clergy of the Epiphany cathedral at Dorogomilovo was arrested, among them Archpriest Basil Yagodin, rector of the cathedral, and the priest Alexander Buravtsev.

Alexander was born on 30 May 1886 in the village of Spasskoe, Moscow district, into the family of the priest Sergius Buravtsev. He finished the Moscow seminary and was ordained priest. Until 1929 he served in churches of the Moscow region. In 1929 he was arrested because he had been unable to pay the tax set by the village soviet, fifteen poods of oats; he was sentenced to a year in prison, but he appealed against the unjust sentence, was acquitted and released. After that he moved to Moscow and served in various churches of the city, from 1934 at the Epiphany cathedral at Dorogomilovo. Arrested, he did not admit guilt. The investigator told him he took part in a counter-⁠revolutionary monarchist organization of clergy; he answered no. The investigator said that he praised the old monarchical order and said that the people were starving; he answered that he had never praised the old order and that he was not hostile to the Soviet authorities.

Basil Yagodin was born on 11 April 1870 in the village of Klyuchi, Kerensk district, Penza province, into the family of the priest Alexander Yagodin. He finished the Penza seminary in 1890, married Yulia Yakovlevna, and they had three daughters. In 1891 he was ordained priest, in 1895 appointed military priest, in 1904 at Moscow priest of a regiment and dean of a division. In 1911 he was appointed rector of the cathedral in the fortress of Sveaborg in Finland, and raised to the rank of archpriest by Metropolitan Vladimir. In 1918 the community of the church of Saint Chariton the Confessor in Moscow asked that Archpriest Basil be given to them as rector, and the request was granted. In 1921 he received the palitsa, and in 1923 Patriarch Tikhon rewarded him with the mitre. In the spring of 1937, after the arrest of Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, he was appointed rector of the Epiphany cathedral at Dorogomilovo and served there until his arrest. At the interrogations he did not admit guilt; he denied having belonged to a counter-⁠revolutionary group, having spread rumours about persecution of religion, having praised the old order or having agitated against the elections.

On 20 December 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced both to death. On 22 December 1937 Archpriest Basil Yagodin and the priest Alexander Buravtsev were shot and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.