Martyr Anatoly Rozhdestvensky

Martyr Anatoly Dmitrievich Rozhdestvensky was born in 1891 into the family of the priest Dimitry Pavlovich Rozhdestvensky, later an archpriest and hieromartyr. His father came in 1899 at the request of Bishop Arkady (Karpinsky) of Turkestan to the city of Verny (now Almaty), where he served on the diocesan consistory, taught religion in local schools, including the Verny teachers' seminary, and later served rural parishes.

Little is known of Anatoly himself. According to the Drevo encyclopedia he served in Verny and taught religion at the teachers' seminary; the PSTBI database lists him as a priest, while the Orthodox Encyclopedia does not mention holy orders. In the investigation files he is called a "minister of religion".

On 19 February 1921, during the repressions against the clergy in Kazakhstan, he was shot in Verny together with his father; their burial place is unknown. Father and son were glorified among the New Martyrs by the Jubilee Council of Bishops in 2000. Feast: 6 (19) February, with Hieromartyr Dimitry; also in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Central Asia.