On Monday December 2 at 5 PM in the Seminary Hall, Alexis Sukharev met with the students of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary to speak about his book “Life and Death of Priest Ilya Popov”. The book was published in Russia in 2013 with the blessing of The Most Rev. Mercury, Metropolitan of Rostov and Novocherkassk.

At least five generations of direct male line ancestors of Father Ilya were Don Cossack priests and clergymen. The dynasty originated in the stanitsa (Cossack village) of Nizhne-Kundriuchenskaya in the middle of the XVIII century. Ilya Popov was born in 1871 and ordained a priest in 1893. He served as rector of a few churches on Don. Revolution of 1917 found him in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the stanitsa of Velikokniazheskaya. He spent most of 1919 as priest in the White forces of General Mamontov fighting Bolsheviks. He then continued serving at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. After the cathedral was closed in 1931 and later destroyed, he served at the church of The Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus in the same stanitsa. That church was closed in December 1935 but Father Ilya continued his pastoral care of the faithful. He was arrested in September of 1937 and executed on October 14, 1937, the day of the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

Alexis Sukharev is a grandson of Father Ilya. Alexis was Professor at Moscow State University in 1971-1993. He authored 10 research monographs and university textbooks and over 100 research papers on numerical analysis, games theory, optimization, operations research, and theoretical computer science. He founded an Information Technology services company Auriga (www.auriga.com) in 1990 and incorporated it in the USA in 1993. Since January of 1994 he is engaged with the company full time and lives in the U.S. commuting between Boston and Moscow. For many years Auriga has been included in Global Services 100 and Global Outsourcing 100 lists and other prestigious rankings. In 2013 Alexis founded Priest Ilya Popov Foundation.

The lecture can be viewed on Holy Trinity Seminary's YouTube channel: