Presbyter
Saint Martyr Alexander was born in 1847 in the family of deacon Stepan Guryevich Miropolsky. After receiving primary education at a spiritual school, he entered the Kazan Spiritual Seminary and decided to become a priest. In 1868, he graduated from the seminary and, after getting married, was ordained as a priest to the church in the village of Alexandrovskoye in the Chistopol district.
He served in various places, including the Pokrovsky church in the village of Apazovo, where he faced difficulties due to the conversion of baptized Tatars to Islam. In 1881, he became a widower, left with two daughters, and decided to continue his ministry, taking in an orphan. In 1883, his parishioners returned to Orthodoxy, which strengthened his spirit.
In 1900, he was appointed to serve in the Trinity Cathedral of the city of Mamadysh, where he encountered troubles due to revolutionary sentiments. In 1906, he entered the Kazan Spiritual Academy, where he studied diligently, dreaming of equipping himself with new knowledge for missionary service.
In 1911, he was sent to the Assumption church of the Yekaterinburg diocese and appointed diocesan missionary. In his 44 years of service, he emphasized the importance of love and the life of Christ in pastoral work. At the end of 1917, he was arrested for distributing religious books in the Tatar language but was released after verification. He was arrested a second time on June 22, 1918, and shot in the night of June 23.
The body of the priest was found after the departure of the Red Guards. On July 7, 1918, a funeral service was held for Saint Martyr Alexander and other martyrs who suffered from the godless authorities in the Assumption church.
