Alexis Rozhdestvensky

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Rozhdestvensky, a protopriest, was born on 22 March 1865 in the village of Vvedenskoe, in the Tarusa district of the Kaluga province, in a priest's family. He reposed in the camp on 26 December 1937, at the age of seventy-⁠two. The Russian Church honours him among the New Martyrs and Confessors.

He studied at the seminary of Bethany and finished it in 1888 in the second category, then for a year was a teacher at a girls' school in Moscow. In 1890 he was ordained deacon, and on 20 June of the same year priest, and served at the church of the Presentation of the Mother of God in his native village, being at the same time teacher of religion at the Levshino school. In 1892 he was moved to the church of Pesochny Zavod, and on 3 August 1897 to Kaluga, to the church of Saint Alexis, where he served until 3 February 1900 and was teacher of religion at the diocesan school. From 1900 to 1923 he served at the church of Saint George beyond the Lavki in Kaluga. On 19 May 1909 he was raised to protopriest. He was a deputy of the diocese of Kaluga, chairman of the audit committee of the diocesan school and a member of the board of the Kaluga seminary, and teacher of religion at a community of sisters of mercy. For his service he received high awards several times.

After Kaluga he was moved to the village of Olkhi in the Yukhnov district. The church there burned, and on 19 February 1927 he moved with his family to Moscow. He served at the church of the Rzhev Mother of God on Prechistensky Boulevard, then at the church of the Nativity of Christ in Kudrino, the church of the Kazan Mother of God in Bolshoy Novinsky, the church of Saint Nicholas on Shchepy and the church of the Annunciation on Berezhki, then at Mytishchi and at the church of Saint George on the Lake in the Klin district. His last place of service was the church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Nikolskoe, in the Kuntsevo district.

On 17 September 1937 he was arrested by the NKVD on a charge of "counter-⁠revolutionary agitation of a provocative and defeatist character". He did not admit guilt. A sentence of ten years in a camp followed. The seventy-⁠two-⁠year-⁠old priest's health could not withstand the hard conditions, and Father Alexis Rozhdestvensky reposed on 26 December 1937. According to an oral report from the GULAG administration, he died in the strict-⁠regime camp at Taishet. He is commemorated on 26 December, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kaluga, on 31 July, and in the Synaxis of the Moscow Saints.