With faith in Christ and hope in the resurrection, we share news of the repose of Hieromonk Alexis (Lisenko), an alumnus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary. Fr. Alexis, who is remembered as a kind, gentle, and gifted priest, fell asleep in the Lord on Friday, June 12.
Hieromonk Alexis was born in Paris, France, on March 31, 1947, to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian Father. At the age of four his parents immigrated to the US, first to San Francisco, CA, and then to Berkeley, CA. After graduating from high school in 1964 he went on to study at the University of California-Berkeley, receiving a degree in Sociology in 1968. He then studied and taught Russian at the US Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. He graduated from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in 1978.
He was ordained at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, CA, in 1979 and was assigned as a priest in Santa Rosa, CA. In 1980 Fr. Alexis was assigned to Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral in Los Angeles, CA, where he served for the next fifteen years. From 1995 on, he served parishes in Desloge, MO; Wheaton, IL; and San Diego, CA. Eventually he was tonsured as a priest-monk in Manton, CA, at St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Monastery. In 2019 he moved back to the Chicago area to be closer to family and to receive much needed medical care.
Fr. Alexis was widely read. He loved history, literature, and poetry. He was an accomplished pianist. He spoke Russian, Ukrainian, French, and English fluently. He was an excellent translator and worked for many years with St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) Press, translating works from Russian into English. He assisted the OCA’s Department of History and Archives on many projects. His most famous work was the 2014 monumental two-volume translation from Russian into English of My Life’s Journey: The Memoirs of Metropolitan Evlogy (SVS Press). This was the fruit of many years of work. At the time of his death, Fr. Alexis was working on translating into English the diary of His Beatitude Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich).
Fr. Alexis was humble, gentle, soft spoken, and loved the liturgical cycle of the Church, serving all the services up until the last week of his death with the Archpriest Paul Jannakos at Saint Luke Orthodox Church in Palos Hill, IL.
He is survived by his family, two sons Daniel and Timothy, a daughter-in-law Remy, grandchildren Christian, Isabella, and Sofia.
Funeral services for Fr. Alexis will be held at St. Luke Church, Palos Hill, IL.
Thursday, June 18
6pm: Funeral for a Monastic
Friday, June 19
9:30am: Divine Liturgy
May the memory of Hieromonk Alexis be eternal!
Article and photo adapted and republished from OCA.org.
