Hieromartyr Alexander Khotovitsky

Hieromartyr Alexander Khotovitsky was born on 11 February 1872 in the city of Kremenets into the pious family of Protopriest Alexander, rector of the Volyn Theological Seminary. He served for many years as a missionary of the Orthodox Church in North America, was the closest assistant to the future Patriarch, then Archbishop of the Aleutians and North America Tikhon (Bellavin), and took part in building St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York. After the revolution he returned to Russia, served in Moscow churches, was a close associate of Patriarch Tikhon during the harshest years of persecution of the Church, and was repeatedly arrested. Protopresbyter Alexander was shot on 7/19 August 1937 and buried in a mass grave at Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow. He was glorified among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994.