Presbyter
Saint Alexius was born on February 8, 1890, in the village of Redino, in the Solnechnogorsk volost of the Klinsky district of the Moscow province. After entering the Vifanskaya Theological Seminary, he graduated in 1915 and on September 22 was appointed as a psalmist in the Tikhvin Church. On April 21, 1916, he was ordained a priest for the Resurrection Church of the village of Merzlovo. In 1922, he was transferred to serve in the Assumption Church of the Prechistensky Pogost. The priest's household after the revolution was burdened with a large tax, and for non-payment, he was sentenced to one month of forced labor. On December 30, 1929, the OGPU arrested Priest Alexius and the church elder, accusing them of spreading false rumors. On February 23, 1930, the OGPU Collegium sentenced the priest to confinement in a concentration camp for five years. In December 1933, he received documents for his release. On May 30, 1934, he was appointed to serve in the Assumption Church. On December 4, 1937, he was arrested and imprisoned in Taganka prison. On December 9, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution. Priest Alexius Smirnov was shot on December 11, 1937, at the Butovo firing range and buried in an unknown common grave.
