Alexander Vislyansky

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Vislyansky (1870 to 1930) was a priest in the Voronezh diocese and was shot in the night of 6 March 1930, together with the priest Daniel Alferov. They are commemorated on 6 March, on 7 February with the synaxis of the new martyrs, on 17 September with the saints of Voronezh, and on 23 September with the saints of Lipetsk.

Alexander was born in 1870 in the village of Arkhangelskoe, Zemlyansk district, Voronezh province, into the family of the psalm-⁠reader Jacob Vislyansky. Finishing the Voronezh seminary in 1893, he was until 1894 teacher of singing at the church school of the Entry into the Temple in Voronezh; in the same year he was ordained deacon at the church of the Tikhon-⁠Tyunin convent, where he also taught singing at the convent school. On 30 March 1897 he was ordained priest at the church of the Archangel in the village of Rogozhino, Zadonsk district, where he served until the coming to power of the unbelievers. In the second half of the twenties he served in the village of Semidesyatnoe, Gremyachye district, Voronezh region. Like many other priests of the region, he bravely resisted the Renovationists who were trying to seize the churches and was very wary of the negotiations of the deputy locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), with representatives of the Soviet authorities and of his declarations; at services he commemorated only the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky), and the bishop of the Voronezh diocese, Bishop Alexis (Buy).

Daniel was born in 1870 in the village of Troynya, Bobrov district, Voronezh province, into the family of the peasant Basil Alferov. After the seminary he was ordained priest and, under the rule of the godless, served at the church in the village of Nikolskoe, Gremyachye district, neighbouring Father Alexander's parish. Before the revolution he took part in popular religious movements, such as the Union of the Russian People, whose members constantly took part in processions.

In 1929 the Soviet authorities began to destroy the peasant estate; the peasants were then closely bound to the village pastors, who shared all their needs, the priests being then the only educated people who accompanied the peasants. The priests Alexander Vislyansky and Daniel Alferov were arrested at the beginning of February 1930, imprisoned in the Voronezh prison and at once questioned. Father Alexander said that believers had several times come with questions: whether they must hand over all the surplus bread, whether the end of the world was near, whether this life in which everything is taken from them and the Church is persecuted would soon end. He answered that the grain deliveries should be made as each could, that the end of the world is hidden from us, as the Gospel clearly states, and as for the persecutors that one must love one's enemies and pray for the godless. Asked whether the Church had given anyone material help, he answered that, although there was no formal resolution, the Church had helped those in need, and who they were, a dispossessed kulak or a poor man, was of no importance to the Church. Father Daniel said at the interrogation that he had no connections except those of service, that he had carried on no agitation or conversations against the Soviet authorities and had not heard that others did. Despite the large number of the accused, the investigation went quickly and was finished in February. On 5 March 1930 the OGPU troika sentenced a part of the arrested to death, among them two priests, and others to years in prison. The priests Alexander Vislyansky and Daniel Alferov were shot in the dead of the night of the next day, 6 March 1930, and buried in an unmarked common grave in the suburb of Voronezh.