HOTOVITZKY, ALEXANDER

HOTOVITZKY, ALEXANDER, martyred priest. Serving in America from 1895 to 1914 as rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral, New York City, and the first editor of the “American Russian Orthodox Messenger,” he counseled Bishops Nicholas, Tikhon (q.v.), and Platon, and founded many parishes in the United States. On returning to Russia he was appointed to some of Moscow’s most prominent churches, including the Kremlin’s Dormition Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (since demolished by the Bolsheviks). Fr. Hotovitzky participated in the All-Russian Church Council of 1917–18, and was a major proponent of the reestablishment of the patriarchate there. Subsequently he advised the sainted Patriarch Tikhon and was repeatedly imprisoned for his pastoral activities until he “disappeared” in a Siberian concentration camp in the 1930s. (At the time of printing he is being considered for canonization by the Russian Church and his full biography is not yet available.)