Alexander Derzhavin

Saint Alexander Derzhavin, priest confessor, was a priest of the Russian Church in the Moscow region and died in exile on 25 March 1933. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia by decision of the Holy Synod of 12 March 2002, for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated by the old calendar on 12 March, the day of his death by the new style, and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

He was born in 1864 in the village of Zelentsino, Klin district, Moscow governorate, the son of the deacon Sergius Derzhavin. In 1887 he finished the theological seminary of Bethany and was ordained priest at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Aleksandrovo, Zvenigorod district. In 1897 he was transferred to the church of the Holy Trinity in the village of Troitskoe, Zvenigorod district. During his service at Troitskoe he received the priestly belt (1900), the skufia (1905), the kamilavka (1913) and the pectoral cross (1916), and in 1915 the Order of Saint Anne, third class. He was confessor of the sixth deanery district of the Zvenigorod district. In 1901 he rebuilt the village church, with reconstruction of the bell tower.

He was arrested in the night of 1 to 2 January 1930, without any charge being brought. He was taken to the inner NKVD prison at the Lubyanka. He was interrogated only once, on 3 January. He was charged with anti-⁠Soviet agitation and with taking part in the uprising at Zvenigorod. Father Alexander did not admit guilt of anti-⁠Soviet agitation and said that he knew nothing about the uprising and could say nothing. On 5 January he was transferred to Butyrka prison. On 12 February 1930 the troika attached to the OGPU representation for the Moscow region sentenced him to three years of exile in the Northern Region. In exile he ruined his health and died on 25 March 1933.