Alexis Lebedev

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Lebedev, a priest, was born on 8 October 1876 in the village of Astafyevo, in the Podolsk district of the Moscow province, in the family of the priest Nicholas Lebedev. He was shot on 17 February 1938 at Butovo, near Moscow.

In 1891 he graduated from the spiritual school at Perervino, and in 1897 from the Moscow seminary. He married Evgenia and in 1902 was ordained priest, serving at the church in the village of Kosyakovo, near Voskresensk, then at the church of Abakshino, in the Bronnitsy district. He was arrested once while serving at Kosyakovo, charged with having allowed money to be collected for church repairs, and was fined 250 rubles. The second time he was arrested for conducting a funeral without a certificate of registration of death, and was again fined 250 rubles.

On the night of 25 to 26 January 1938 he was arrested and imprisoned at Taganka in Moscow. On 29 January the investigator asked whether he admitted guilt of anti-⁠Soviet agitation. Father Alexis answered that he did not. About the words of July 1937 he said only this: the party and the Soviet authorities fight against religion and oppress it, but he had been raised in the faith, and even if there were no more churches he would still believe. He denied having spoken of a coming war or having stirred up defeatist feelings.

On 8 February the case was sent to the troika, and on 11 February the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Priest Alexis Lebedev was shot on 17 February 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range. He is commemorated on 17 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and the Synaxis of the Moscow Saints.