Saint Alexis the Carpatho-Rusyn (Kabalyuk) Saint Alexei (in the world Alexander Kabalyuk) was a missionary and an outstanding figure of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. He was born on September 1, 1877 into the family of a lumberjack in Transcarpathia, and was named after the Right-believing Prince Alexander Nevsky.
As a young man he became a novice in the Uniate monastery of Kish-Baranya, but soon he went to Mount Athos, to the Russian Monastery of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, where he converted to Orthodoxy. From there he was sent to Russia as a novice in the Monastery of Saint Onoúphrios Yablochinsky in the Kholm region. On May 5, 1910 he was tonsured as a monk, and on August 15, 1910 he was ordained as a Hieromonk.
He returned to Carpatho-Russia and began preaching Orthodoxy among the Uniates. As a result of his missionary activities, by 1912, about 35,000 Uniates had returned to Orthodoxy in the villages of Iza, Velikiye Luchki, Yasinya, Khust, Lipcha, Belki, Ilnitsa, Chumalevo, Tereblya, etc..
When Father Alexei returned to Austria-Hungary, the Catholic authorities conducted the Marmoros-Sigoth trial (1913–1914), where he was accused of "treason" and sentenced to imprisonment in the Thalerhof concentration camp with 95 other Carpatho-Russian Orthodox patriots.
In his closing remarks, Father Alexei expressed the thoughts of all those who were sentenced: "Here is a religious trial... Here, as in a church, there are believers and I, as their priest... We are not to blame for anything. All that we have done was done exclusively for the Orthodox Faith and for the good of the people; therefore the final word in this matter will be spoken by Jesus Christ Himself... If we must suffer, we shall suffer for the sacred things.... There, in heaven, they know that there was only one desire in our hearts: to establish our spiritual life."
On August 17, 1921, Father Alexei was chosen as Igoumen of the Saint Nicholas Monastery in Iza. In 1923 (1925?) he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
In 1944 Father Alexei went to Moscow, as the head of a delegation of the Carpatho-Russians together with Archimandrite Theophanes (Sabov) and Professor P. Linkur, he arrived in Moscow asking them to accept the Carpatho-Russians. He also had an audience with Metropolitan Vladimir and Archbishop Platon, who came from the United States. They advised him to come to America, where there was a large Carpatho-Russian colony, in order to avoid being persecuted by the authorities.
There the venerable one continued his missionary labors, and many thousands of Carpatho-Russians returned to the faith of their Fathers. He was assigned to a parish, but he did not forget his homeland. He carried on a lively correspondence, providing information on the status of the Orthodox movement, and also informed the Orthodox in America, all of whom sided with the sufferers.
He was one of the initiators of the transfer of the Autonomous Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church from the Serbian Patriarchate to the Moscow Patriarchate and Associations of Serbian and Constantinople Orthodox Jurisdictions of Carpatho-Russia under the authority of the Patriarch of Moscow (Act of October 22, 1945 on the accession of the Mukachevo-Pryashev diocese to the Russian Orthodox Church).
On November 19/December 2, 1947, Saint Alexei reposed at the Dąbok Convent. He was buried in the cemetery of the village of Iza, Khust district in the Transcarpathian region in Ukraine. His relics were recovered on March 12, 1999.
The glorification of the Holy Confessor Alexei of Carpatho-Russia took place on November 21, 2001.
It is very difficult to appreciate all the things Saint Alexei did for his people; many monasteries were opened because of his efforts, and many people came to the true Faith through his sermons and prayers.