Alexis Amanov

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Amanov, a priest, was born on 9 February 1870 in the city of Kasimov, Ryazan province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader John Amanov, whose three sons all became priests. He was shot on 3 December 1937 at Butovo, near Moscow, as protopriest of the town of Zaraysk.

He studied two years at the seminary in Ryazan. He married Serafima Andreevna Anokhina and was ordained priest. From 1914 to 1927 he served in the village of Balyki, in the Pochep district of the Bryansk region. In the early 1920s several horsemen rode into his yard and told him that within an hour they would return to shoot him in public. Father Alexis went out into the garden and prayed. The news spread through the village, people gathered around the house and defended him.

In 1927 he moved to the Moscow diocese and, since his wife's sisters lived at Zaraysk, asked to serve there. He was appointed to the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Maslovo, where he served until 1930. On 1 December 1930 he was transferred to the Saviour church in Zaraysk, on 24 November 1931 he was raised to protopriest, and from 1935 he served at the church of the Prophet Elijah in the same town, a small church on the town's edge. His wife, Serafima Andreevna, was the choir director. The family lived in want, sometimes hungry; the grandchildren searched the thawed fields for rotten potatoes, and in winter gathered hay in the market for the goat. The priest had no horse and went on foot to every service, and in Bright Week visited the homes of the faithful. From Balyki he kept an injured knee, and in the 1930s he began to lose the sight of one eye from glaucoma. In 1930 his household was counted among the kulaks and their things were carried out of the house at night. People came to him for counsel, and he helped as he could and was much respected.

In mid-⁠November 1937 the investigation began. False witnesses said that he had spoken against the Stalinist constitution, that the common people were with the Church, and that he would keep visiting the homes of the faithful and would not abandon his faith. He was arrested at home on 24 November 1937. When he took leave of his wife he said: "Thank you, you were a faithful wife to me. I go in the footsteps of the Saviour." The same day he was interrogated and denied all the charges. He was held at Kolomna, then at Taganka in Moscow.

On 29 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Protopriest Alexis Amanov was shot on 3 December 1937 at Butovo and buried in an unknown common grave. A few hours before his death the Taganka prison photographer photographed him, so that among the many executions the executioner would not make a mistake. He is commemorated on 3 December, and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan.