Alexander Verizhsky

Holy Martyr Alexander Verizhsky was a student at the Kazan Theological Academy and was shot in 1918 because he would not accept Bolshevik atheism.

Coming from the Stavropol seminary, he was one of the best students and a scholarship holder of Professor N. P. Sokolov, with a special interest in history, philosophy and German. In 1916-1917 he was called up for military service. In 1918 he returned to his native village, in the Stavropol eparchy, to his father, who was a church reader. There, as a witness of Bolshevik propaganda at the front, he began to denounce the Bolsheviks for their godlessness and their forceful policy toward the Church. He was arrested. On his way to execution he said that he had never recognized the Bolsheviks and would never reconcile with them. He was allowed to pray, and then he was shot.

He is honoured in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan, on 4 October by the old calendar (17 October by the new).