Great Schema Hieromonk
Saint Aristocles (in the world – Alexey Alexeyevich Amvrosiev) was born in 1846 in Orenburg. At the age of ten, after an illness, he lost the use of his legs. His mother, asking Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker for healing, made a vow to dedicate her son to God. Alexey was healed on December 6, the feast day of Saint Nicholas. In 1876, he entered the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, where he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Aristocles.
In 1884, he was ordained as a hieromonk, and in 1886 – into the schema. From 1891 to 1894, he was the abbot of the Athonite monastery's dependency in Moscow. The elder possessed the gift of healing and clairvoyance, receiving hundreds of people in need of help. He distributed donations and paid for the education of children from poor families.
In 1894, after a false denunciation, the elder left Moscow and returned to Athos. In 1909, he was again appointed as the abbot of the dependency in Moscow. From 1909 to 1918, two three-story buildings were constructed at the dependency, one of which housed a domestic church.
On August 24/September 6, 1918, the elder reposed in the Lord. He was buried by three Moscow bishops. Initially, he was interred in a marble crypt, but in 1923 he was reburied at the Danilov Cemetery in Moscow.
In 2001, the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Russian Orthodox Church found no obstacles to the glorification of the elder. On September 6, 2004, he was glorified in the rank of locally revered saints. His relics rest in the church of Saint Great Martyr Nikita at the Athonite dependency in Moscow.
