Ekaterinburg, November 27, 2019
St. Alexander and Matushka Alexandra. Photo: spzh.news
The Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Ekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is looking for grandchildren great-grandchildren and other descendants of the holy New Martyr Alexander Adrianov.
Relatives of the newly-canonized saint are needed to confirm the authenticity of his remains. It is believed they could be living in the Urals, St. Petersburg, Donbass, or other regions, reports prichod.ru.
St. Alexander was canonized by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on March 7, 2018. His canonization was liturgically celebrated a week later in Ekaterinburg’s Church of the Blood.
In October of this year, remains were found in the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs in Nizhnaya Tura, where St. Alexander served, that presumably belong to him, but his descendants are being sought to confirm the remains as his relics.
It is known that St. Alexander was married to Alexandra Vasilievna Lyubomudrova and had three children: Sergei, Alexander, and Anna, but, unfortunately, all traces of his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other descendants have been lost.
The eldest son, Sergei, was born around 1890, was married, was ordained as a priest, and retreated with the army in 1919 to Siberia, where he reposed. The younger son, Alexander, was born around 1903. In 1925, he lived in Nizhnaya Tura and then possibly moved to Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
St. Alexander’s daughter, Anna, was born in 1888. She was the wife of a priest, Fr. Alexander Nikolaevich Mescheryakov. They lived in a village that is now the city of Krasnotursink in the Sverdlovsk Province.
Anna had two children, the grandchildren of St. Alexander. Boris was born about 1910, lived in Leningrad, and worked as an electrician. Lydia was born about 1912 and worked in Donbass.
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Fr. Alexander Adrianov was a zealous priest of the Ekaterinburg Diocese whose whole life was consumed by service to his flock and love for others.
In the autumn of 1918, he was the sole priest remaining in his area, as several others fled following the Bolsheviks’ killing of several clergy. He continued zealously serving and preaching.
Fr. Alexander was arrested in the night of November 8/21 during a Divine service and was shot soon thereafter on November 12/25. According to one eyewitness, Fr. Alexander died with a prayer on his lips. His body was found five days later, lightly covered with snow, with his arms crossed over his chest.
