Priest Alexander Orlov

The persecution of Soviet power to the Russian Church was such that it was not to say about their faith, but even silently follow it as a feat. The new martyrs and confessors, glorified in the face of the saints did not come: believed, prayed and meekly went to their Calvarys.

“Polit.ru” recalls those who gave their lives for faith and by whose prayers the Russian Church is alive - even if almost nothing came to us besides the name.

Publications were prepared by Kirill Kharatyan (included by the Russian authorities in the register of foreign agents).

Alexander Orlov was born in the village of McCaveevo (now the village of Sontul) of the Kasimov district of the Ryazan province in the family of the teacher of the Samilovsky parish school; His father Vasily shortly after his son was ordained a deacon to the Pokrovsky temple in the village of McCaveevo.

Since 1905, after graduating from a parish school and a theological school, he began to serve as a psalmist in the Intercession Church in his native village. At that moment he was 27 years old. He married, a daughter was born. In 1919, he was ordained a deacon to this church.

Often visited the ascetic known in those parts, who lived in the village of Anemnyasevo Kasimovsky district, blessed to Matron; She advised him to be ordained a priest for four kilometers from Aesnyasev to the temple. In January 1932, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Ryazan Juvenal (Maslovsky), to the temple of the Great Martyr Paraskeva in the village of Shelyanka, Kasimovsky district.

Since that time, he became the confessor of the blessed Matrona, who was then sixty -two years old; Father Alexander came to serve her during the big holidays of prayers, communed her once every and a half months, sometimes he catched ahead.

In 1934, Father Alexander was transferred to the Trinity Church to the village of Gus-Zhelezny. Giving a characteristic of a priest, the chairman of the village council wrote that Father Alexander performed services in the temple, without asking for permission from the village council, served a prayer service for rain, went to Easter with a procession in the square and preached with a “evasion against Soviet power. The tasks of collecting bitch did not carry out the assembly of the village council, for which a fine was given ... Often he went to the house to the church headman, who is anti -Soviet. ”

In June 1935, employees of the NKVD of the Kasimovsky district began the case against the blessed Matrona and its admirers. On June 30, 1935, Father Alexander was arrested in the case of Popov Truth -Lubs and Sick Group Matrena Belyakova. In total, in the group case “The case of the Belyakova Matrona of Anemnyasevskaya. Ryazan about., 1935. " 10 people were arrested, everyone was sent to Ryazan, then to Moscow.

The priest Alexander Orlov was imprisoned in Butyrskaya prison in Moscow and immediately interrogated.

The investigator demanded from the priest to tell everything that he knew about the blessed Matron. Father Alexander replied that the blessed Matrona enjoys great authority among believers and it is visited by many people from various places; He himself is surprised at her patience, the mind and wisdom of the advice that she gives visitors.

- Do you find yourself guilty that you, for counter -revolutionary purposes, glorified Blessed Matren Belyakov, carried out anti -Soviet agitation among believers and spread false rumors about the war and the inevitable death of the Soviet regime?
- In the glorification of the blessed Matreshi, I find myself guilty. I really read her and live on her advice. I spoke about this to believers and advised them to go to her for advice. In anti -Soviet agitation and the spread of false rumors, I do not admit to myself guilty, ”the priest answered.
- We know that in order to glorify the blessed Matreshi Belyakova, who lives in the village of Anemnyasevo ... they told believers about her righteous life, about her wise advice and advised the patients to turn to her as a could heal from illnesses.
- Tell me, did you carry out the mentioned activity to glorify the blessed matrye?
- I, as a confessor of blessed Matreshi, was with her, I knew about her pious life and wisdom, so I really told believers about her as a blessed and righteous man who could give wise advice on all life issues and having the ability to miraculously heal from diseases; At the same time, I advised believers and especially sick to go to her and receive healing from my illness.
- Tell me, what advice did the blessed matryosh give its admirers?
- In my presence, the blessed Matresh advised her admirers more often to go to church, pray more, serve prayers to the sunglahs of God. I advised to lead a sober life. Respect parents and elders. What advice was given to the blessed Matryosh on the issue of joining collective farms, I do not know, since there were no conversations in my presence on this topic.

In the indictment, the investigator wrote that the priest, "being a participant in the counter -revolutionary group, for counter -revolutionary purposes, actively glorified the" blessed Matryosh "by Belyakov, organized the pilgrimage of believers and committed secret services in her apartment."

On August 2, 1935, a special meeting at the NKVD sentenced Priest Alexander Orlov to five years in the duty-labor camp. The conclusion was first served in the Solovetsky special forces camp, from where in 1937 he was transferred to Karelia, Medvezhyegorsklag, and the camp of Sosnovets. During his conclusion, his wife and daughter moved to the village of Mitino, Kasimovsky district and began to help at the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “all the mourning joy”.

When in 1940, Father Alexander was released from a conclusion, before going to his relatives, he went to one of his parishioners who lived in a neighboring village - ragged, hungry, barely alive, and, without going inside the house, asked to lay him on the rug near the door, since all his clothes were overwhelmed with lice. Having washed himself in the bathhouse and recovering somewhat, he headed for Mitino. When he approached the temple, there was a vain on the festival of the Holy The Apostles of Peter and Paul, and at that time his wife with a censer in his hands came out of the temple, intending to light a fever before the beginning of Polyleev. The priest greeted her, but during the imprisonment he changed so much that his wife did not recognize him, and Father Alexander, bitterly crying, said: “Apparently, I’ll not live long that you went out to meet me with Kadil.” Then the wife recognized him and also cried.

Father Alexander began to serve as the second priest in a mournful temple. Being from childhood of poor health, he was even more exhausted by health in the camp and already lived and served, pushing all the time; For less than a year he lived, returning from a conclusion.

He died on April 27, 1941, the priest went to the window in the room where he lived, and, seeing someone, he wanted to meet, sighed-and sighed. He was 63 years old. Buried in with. Shelyanka (according to IG. Damaskin (Orlovsky) - at the altar of the Pokrovsky church in the village of McCaveevo).