Alexander of Vologda

Righteous Alexander of Vologda (in the world Alexander Nikolaevich Badanin, 1846-1913) was a priest at the church of the Ascension in Vologda, a humble and merciful pastor gifted with insight into hearts, who in his last years became the elder of the city. He was glorified in 2000 as a locally venerated saint of the Vologda diocese. He is commemorated on 9 February (the day of glorification) and 10 March (the day of repose), by the old calendar.

Life

He was born in 1846 at Nikolsk, in Vologda province. His father, Deacon Nikolai Petrovich Badanin of the Presentation Cathedral at Nikolsk, who lived to deep old age, was marked by piety, humility and an amazing simplicity, as was his mother. He studied at the church school and the Vologda seminary, finishing in 1868. He taught at the church schools of Soligalich, Vologda and Totma, was assistant to the inspector of the Totma school and teacher of the preparatory class at Vologda. In 1883 Bishop Israel ordained him priest and appointed him to the Vologda cathedral, and in February 1891 to the church of the Ascension, which had no parish and very small income.

In one month of October the income was three roubles seventy kopecks. When he left the church a poor woman asked him for alms. He gave her everything, saying it was not worth taking so little home. He began to serve zealously, people began to come to his services and came to love his church, and the income grew better than in others. He served daily, and there were always worshippers in the church. After the Liturgy he served a moleben to the Life-⁠giving Cross and read the akathist of the Holy Passion. On Sunday, after the early Liturgy, he served a moleben before the icon of the Mother of God of the Three Hands, which he especially revered. At the end of the services he served molebens to each saint commemorated that day, memorial services for those in the commemoration lists, and then prayed long in the altar and kissed all the icons of the church. He usually preached while people came to kiss the cross, and those who came heard just what they needed to know and left comforted.

For his humility and piety the Lord gave him the gift of seeing the thoughts and intentions of those who came to him with faith. Father John of Kronstadt, passing through Vologda, when the people of Vologda asked him for prayers and teaching, said that they had a man of prayer of their own, and named Father Alexander Badanin. He never had money on him, because he gave everything to the needy, and his wife was equally kind. For his labour he received a golden pectoral cross from the Synod and said humbly that he had received it by mistake, since he was nothing, a heap of dung, and hung it before the icon of the Mother of God in his cell.

Friends and eldership

He asked to be buried beside his daughter Varvara and Father Theodore, a tall elder, an ascetic, who lived alone in a small cell on the edge of the town and had the gift of tears and foresight. Another spiritual friend was the inspector of the Vologda seminary, Father Theophan (Kharitonov), a true monk, who later went to Athos and became Hieroschemamonk Theodosius of Karoulia. He was often visited by Hieromonk Simeon of the Cross church of the bishop's house and by Father Vasily Sokolov of Borok.

Often ill, he left service but not into retirement, for a new period of his life began, eldership, which lasted until death. Like the Optina elders Ambrose and Joseph, chained by illness to his chair, he served the Church by prayer, consolation of the sorrowing and healing of the spiritual ailments of the people. On one wall of his room hung a large image of Venerable Seraphim, to which he sent all to bow rather than kiss his hand. To those who asked how to be saved he said most often: read the lives of the saints and they will teach you. Full of years and the people's love, he passed to the Lord in 1913, and his veneration, with miracles and healings, led to his glorification as a locally venerated saint of the Vologda diocese in 2000.