Alexis Vvedensky

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Vvedensky, a deacon, was born on 19 February 1903 in the village of Prusovo, Yaroslavl province, in a priest's family. He was shot on 26 August 1937, after three arrests. The Jubilee Council of Bishops of the year 2000 numbered him among the saints.

His name was Alexis Vasilievich Vvedensky. He studied at a three-⁠class school and at the spiritual school in Yaroslavl. In 1925 he was ordained deacon and began to serve at the church of the village of Petropavlovskoe, in the Bolshoe Selo district. He was at once deprived of the vote, and on 3 February 1930 he was arrested in the group case of the "group of clergy and laity of the Borok district", on a charge of systematic anti-⁠Soviet agitation, attempts to call for mass disorder and the formation of an anti-⁠Soviet grouping. He was sentenced to five years in a camp, with confiscation of property and expulsion of his family, wife and one child. From the special isolator in Yaroslavl he was taken to the White Sea Canal, then to the Temnikov camp, in the Northern Territory. In 1934 he was released, returned to his village and resumed his diaconal service, but was arrested almost at once and sentenced to one year of forced labour.

After serving his term he worked for a time at a power plant, hoping to return to church service. The third and last arrest took place on 21 June 1937. At the NKVD department of Bolshoe Selo he was charged with "anti-⁠Soviet agitation" and "participation in a counter-⁠revolutionary church group". He did not admit guilt and signed no slander against his neighbours. The NKVD troika of the Yaroslavl region sentenced him to the supreme penalty, and on 26 August 1937 Deacon Alexis Vvedensky was shot. He is commemorated on 26 August, on 7 February and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, on 5 June.