Saint Alexander Hotovitzky

Alexander Hotovitzky (or Hotovitsky Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Хотови́цкий) (1872-1937) was a Russian Orthodox hieromartyr. He was ordained to the priesthood while working in the United States in the 1890s. He was ordered back to Europe in 1914, where he worked as a vicar in Berlin and Helsinki, in the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. In 1917 he was assigned to Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. After the October Revolution he was arrested multiple times and exiled. He was executed during the Great Purge on August 19, 1937. His glorification is celebrated on 21 November in the Church Calendar, December 4 in the Civil Calendar. Alexander Hotovitzky was born on February 11, 1872, in the city of Kremenets in Volhynia (now Ukraine). His father, Alexander, was a priest who was the rector of the Volhynia Theological Seminary. Hotovitzky was educated at the Volhynia Seminary before entering the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Upon graduation from the academy in 1895 with a master's degree he was sent to the Diocese of the Aleutians and North America as a lay missionary and as reader at the St. Nicholas Church in New York City. He was ordained a deacon after his marriage to Maria Scherbuhina, who was a graduate of the Pavlovsk Institute of St. Petersburg. Bishop Nicholas Ziorov ordained Hotovitzky to the priesthood on February 25, 1896, at the diocesan cathedral in San Francisco. A week later he returned to New York to become the pastor of St. Nicholas Church. During the ensuing years, Hotovitzky was successful in his missionary activities among the immigrants from Galicia and Carpatho-Russia, as well as representing the Orthodox Church before American religious institutions and meetings. He was instrumental in the establishment of many new Orthodox parishes, including those in Yonkers, Passaic, Philadelphia, and Watervliet. He edited the journal of Orthodox activity, the American Orthodox Messenger.