Bishop Alexander (Vitols)

Alexander (Vitols; 5th of June 1876, Liefland Governorate, Russian Empire – 30th of July 1942, Riga, Reichskommissariat Ostland / Latvia) – the Bishop of Madona.

Adam Vitols was born on June 5, 1876, into a Latvian Orthodox peasant family. In 1892, he graduated from the Riga Theological School, and in 1898, from the Riga Theological Seminary. He then served as a psalm reader in the Ubbenorm Parish (now the settlement of Pociems) of the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, also performing the duties of an elementary school teacher. From 1901, he was psalm reader at the Church of St. Alexis in Marciena.

On October 21, 1906, he was ordained as a priest of the Vestiens Church of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord (Tolki settlement, Madona District). From 1909, he served in the Stomerzene Parish (modern-day Stāmeriena, near Gulbene) of the Church of the Holy Right-Believing Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky.

From 1921 to 1934, he had been the provost of the Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in Viļaka.

In 1932, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest.

His wife, Lidiya Vitols, passed away in 1918; the family had two children (a son, Sergey, and a daughter, Ksenia).

On July 17, 1938, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Jersika (residing in Daugavpils), the second vicar of Metropolitan of the Latvian Orthodox Church (LOC) under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. From 1941, he served as the Bishop of Madona.

When Latvia was incorporated into the USSR and the LOC once again became a diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Vitols did not join Metropolitan Augustin Peterson in opposing Patriarchal Exarch of Latvia and Estonia and Lithuania Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky). As a result, he was received in his existing rank, granted permission to perform episcopal services, and given the rights to serve as a vicar bishop under the diocesan hierarch. He carried out special assignments from Sergius, in particular overseeing Latvian Orthodox parishes in Latvia, and for a time during the Second World War, administering the entire Riga Diocese.

Bishop Alexander (Vitols) passed away on July 30, 1942, and was buried in Riga at the Mikela Cemetery (formerly Ascension Cemetery).

Text prepared by Sergey Tsoia

Sources of information:

1)  Гаврилин А.В. Под покровом Тихвинской иконы. Архипастырский путь Иоанна (Гарклавса). СПб.: «Алаборг», Тихвин: Издательская служба Тихвинского монастыря, 2009. С. 176. С. 132, 151;

2) Сахаров С.П. Православные церкви в Латгалии: (историко-статистическое описание). Дополнение. Церкви Илукстского уезда и г. Екабпилса. Рига: Издание автора, 1939. С. 58–61.

3) Использованы также некоторые дополнительные материалы из интернет-ресурсов.