Saturday, September 12, marked the 10th anniversary of the blessed death of the former bishop of Buenos Aires and South America Alexander (Mileant).

Bishop Alexander (Alexander Mileant) was born in 1938 in Odessa, Russia. During World War II, his family emigrated from the Soviet Union and settled in Buenos Aires. When he was 8 years old, Alexander began to serve in altar. At the end of 1963, he enrolled at the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, from which he graduated in 1976 with a degree in theology. A year earlier, Archbishop Averky (Taushev; +1976) ordained him to the diaconate, Metropolitan Filaret (Voznesensky, +1985) ordained him to the priesthood and sent to the Protection of the Holy Virgin Church in Los Angeles, California, where he served for 31 year as the rector. Spiritually instructing his flock, father Alexander continued his education, receiving a bachelor's degree in electronics in 1978, then a master's degree, and in 1983 - the profession of engineer in communications at the University of Southern California. He worked at NASA laboratories involved in the development of aircraft engines. Worldly work has contributed to the fact that father Alexander became a computer expert, which, in turn, helped him to produce numerous missionary pamphlets that are popular in Russia and around the world. Today, there are more than 300 of his published booklets on Orthodoxy in Russian, English and Spanish.

In 1995, Archpriest Alexander was tonsured a monk at the Holy Trinity Monastery with the name Alexander in honor of the Holy Martyr Alexander of Kharkov, who died in prison in 1939 (before that Fr. Alexander bore the name of St. Alexander Nevsky, on whose feast day he rested in peace). On May 28, 1998 at the Synodal Cathedral in New York, Archimandrite Alexander was consecrated bishop and appointed as the ruling bishop of Buenos Aires and South America.