Alexis Molchanov

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Molchanov, priest in the village of Valki in the Lyskovo district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, was arrested in the autumn of 1937 and sentenced to death because he refused to sign false testimony. The Russian Church honours him among the New Martyrs and Confessors.

In September 1937 there were arrested in the Nizhny Novgorod region the deacon John Moshkov, born in 1885, who served in the village of Isady, the deacon Benjamin Vladimirsky, born in 1892, of the village of Prosek, and a believer of sixty-⁠two, Elizabeth Sidorova, of the village of Ivanovskoe. The woman was seized on 13 September and the two deacons on 15 September. The investigator had no proof of their guilt. Despite torture, the arrested men and the woman firmly rejected the false accusations. In the same case the priest Alexis Andreevich Molchanov of the village of Valki was arrested, who did not sign a false testimony. All were sentenced to death and shot.

They are commemorated on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 12 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Nizhny Novgorod.