Righteous Alexy Bortsurmansky

In the Assumption Church of the Nizhny Novgorod village of Bortsurmans lie the remains of a priest whose path to church glorification stretched for a century and a half. The Council adopted an official decision on the canonization of righteous Alexy (Gnevushev) in 2000, but the first documentary attempts to fix his veneration date back to 1913.

The name of this man was well known to Saint Seraphim of Sarov. The elders never met in person, but the Sarov ascetic spoke of the Bortsurman priest as follows: “This man is like a candle burned before the throne of God with his prayers.” He is like a star on the Christian horizon.” Such a high assessment from the lips of the famous miracle worker speaks of the scale of the rural pastor’s personality.

Alexy Gnevushev was born on May 13, 1762, right at the parish — his father served in the same Assumption Church. After a seminar course in Nizhny Novgorod, he married and was ordained deacon in 1784. Thirteen years later he took the rank of presbyter and remained in his native church until his death.

At first, the behavior of the priest did not resemble future asceticism. The fracture occurred in 1796. A man was sent to him to confess and commune the dying. Father Alexis was angry, said that the patient would wait until morning, and escorted the messenger. However, his conscience forced him to get up at night and go on a journey. In the patient’s house he saw an already lifeless body, and next to it the figure of an Angel with a Cup in his hands. This vision changed his whole life.

From that day on, the liturgy became daily. In personal prayer, the father combined the midnight, twelve psalms, Kathisms, akathists, reading the Prologue and Lives, canons to the Lord and the Guardian Angel. To this was added one and a half thousand waist and earthly prostrations with the Jesus prayer. Worldly affairs were not excluded: he worked in the field, on the farm, received people and discreetly distributed money to the victims – one such benefactor was once caught at the scene of a “crime”.

His contemporaries witnessed the gift of insight and healing. A girl from Kurmysh who did not walk from birth rose to her feet, a boy from the local flock returned to life. They brought the mentally ill and demoniacs to him, and they, according to sources, left healthy. The father himself was seriously ill: once, lying down without strength, he survived a visit to the Virgin with the Great Martyr Barbara, after which he rose up healed. Subsequently, it was revealed to him that in 1812 the heavenly rati had already advanced to help Russian soldiers, and he heard a voice over the Holy Gifts during the liturgy.

About nine years before his death, the pastor retired from parish administration and family care. He lived in a room with one window facing the temple. He wore a haircut on the body, observed extreme abstinence in food, and in the first and Holy Week of fasting he completely refused food. Eyewitnesses noticed his resemblance to Seraphim of Sarov.

His death came on Great Thursday in 1848. Sitting by the window, Father Alexy blessed those gathered to say goodbye to him until his hand froze forever. He was buried opposite the altar, and almost immediately the tomb became a place of constant prayer worship.

At the beginning of the XX century, the commission of the Nizhny Novgorod consistory checked the facts of miracles and found them reliable, but the canonization was interrupted by the First World War and the Revolution. In 1937, the temple was turned into a club with a warehouse, the burial was repeatedly destroyed — the faithful secretly restored the hill. Only in 1989 began the revival of the parish and the restoration of the building. The consecration took place on August 17, 1993, at the same time the relics were solemnly introduced into the church. The final point in the long process was set by the Council of Bishops of 2000.