Saint Alexander Hotovitzky (or Hotovitsky) (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 we worked as a vicar in Berlin and Helsinki, Finland, then a part of imperial Russia. 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 21st November in the Church Calendar, December 4 in the Civil Calendar.
Early life and education
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.
Work in the United States
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 Pavlosk 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. He actively participated in establishing an Orthodox mutual aid society (ROCMAS), including serving in various management positions. Through his initiative and active participation, a new St. Nicholas Cathedral was built to replace the small parish church in New York City. He traveled throughout the United States, and even to Russia, soliciting funds for its construction. Tzar Nicholas contributed 5,000 rubles. In 1903, the new edifice became the diocesan cathedral.
The treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War was negotiated and signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Hotovitzky was among the Orthodox clergy who traveled to Portsmouth for the occasion, where a service of Thanksgiving was held in Christ Church. Hotovitzky sang a solemn "Te Deum" with choristers from St. Nicholas Cathedral.
He served in America for eighteen years under Bishop Nicholas; the future Patriarch of Moscow, St. Tikhon; and Archbishop Platon; the now Archpriest Alexander was recalled to Russia on February 26, 1914.
Russia and Martyrdom
After his arrival in the Russian Empire, Hotovitzky was appointed rector of the Orthodox congregation in Helsinki; then a part of the Russian Empire, now Finland. Here, as assistant to the archbishop of Finland, Sergius (Stragorodsky), later Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow, he worked against the proselytizing activities of the Finnish Lutheran majority.
In August 1917 he was transferred to Christ the Savior Church in Moscow as an assistant priest to once again serve under his old archpastor from America, Patriarch Tikhon. He arrived just before the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918 and the October Revolution. He was an active participant in the Church Council and assisted Tikhon in the administration of the Moscow diocese. With the loss of state funding, the Church and the Cathedral had to look to other sources of funds.
Hotovitzky's activities within the Church led to his arrest by the Bolsheviks for brief periods in May 1920 and November 1921 for violating government decrees concerning religion. Hotovitzky, with Fr. Nicholas Arseniev, the rector of Christ the Savior Cathedral, aided the establishment of a brotherhood that appealed to the Orthodox community to defend and preserve the Cathedral, and to aid the starving. In 1922, Church property, including icons and sacred vessels, were confiscated by the government, allegedly to help the poor and starving. Tikhon issued a decree based on canon law that the clergy in Russia were not to surrender sacred vessels for non-ecclesiastical use.