Alexis Belkovsky

Saint Alexis (in the world Pyotr Filippovich Belkovsky, 1841-1937), hieromartyr, was Archbishop of Velikiy Ustyug and Ust-⁠Vym. A city priest and widower, he received monastic vows at fifty-⁠six, became bishop and remained faithful to Patriarch Tikhon in the face of the Renovationist Church. He was arrested at the age of ninety-⁠five and died after a few days in prison, in the autumn of 1937. He was glorified in August 2000 among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The sources do not agree on his day of commemoration: one gives 18 September, while the church calendar in our sources gives 19 November.

The priest

He was born on 14 December 1841 in the village of Rozhdestvino, Kashira district, Tula province, in the family of the priest Philip Efimovich Belkovsky. He graduated from the Tula seminary in 1864 and was ordained priest by Bishop Nikander for the Alexander Nevsky church at the hospital. From 1867 he was teacher at the bishop's singing school, then teacher of religion at the paramedics' school, at city schools and at an orphanage, and a member of the church school board. He was moved to the Tula cathedral in 1875, and in 1879 to the orphanage church. He preached much, organized religious talks and readings, and was a benefactor and pastor. He buried the poor at his own expense and, visiting them, always gave them money. In the famine of 1891 he organized help for hungry children, fed with a warm breakfast at an almshouse, and he also kept at the church a parish school and, from 1896, a free public library. In 1897 he was raised to archpriest and, widowed, was tonsured a monk with the name Alexis. From 1898 he was abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery at Staraya Russa, as archimandrite.

The archbishop

On 5 September 1904 he was consecrated Bishop of Velikiy Ustyug, second vicar of the Vologda diocese. Under him the diocesan girls' school was built and several churches were built and consecrated, among them, in 1916, the prison church. In 1906, at his own request, because of age and illness, he was retired, but in 1909 he was called back to service. In 1916 he received the title of Bishop of Velikiy Ustyug and Ust-⁠Vym, in 1918 he was confirmed as ruling bishop of the independent diocese, and in 1920 he was raised to archbishop.

After Patriarch Tikhon was arrested in 1922, the Renovationist Church appeared, which from 1923, with NKVD support, began to take over local church governments. At Velikiy Ustyug a persecution began against the hierarch of Tikhon's Church, led by the Vologda priest Tikhon Shalamov, father of the writer Varlam Shalamov. In 1924 the Renovationists retired him, as one who had remained faithful to Patriarch Tikhon. He lived at Velikiy Ustyug and served the Liturgy daily. After the church was closed he lived in a watchman's hut and served at the churches of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and Saint Demetrius in Dymkovo. He stopped serving only at the beginning of 1937, when he could no longer walk by himself.

Martyrdom

In the autumn of 1937 he was arrested at Dymkovo, aged ninety-⁠five, and NKVD officers had to carry him out with his bed, using a sheet in place of a stretcher to load him on a cart. He remained in full possession of his mind and encouraged the others to stand firm in the faith. After a few days he died in prison, in the cathedral of the former Archangel Michael Monastery, on 18 October 1937. He was thrown, with others who were shot, into the pit outside the town, and the faithful took the body out at night and buried it secretly nearby, a place now within the town cemetery. Since 2012 the synaxis of all the martyrs and confessors of Velikiy Ustyug is celebrated on his commemoration day. He had five children by Elisaveta Ivanovna, who died in 1896, of whom the priest Vasily was shot at Butovo in 1937.