During his third year of study he was tonsured a monk by Bishop of Yamburg Georgius (Yaroshevsky), a rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy.

In September 1918 on orders of the Holiest Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and dispatched as an eparchial (diocesan) missioner to Minsk.

In December 1918 with the withdrawal of Germany forces from the Eastern front following the World War I, Aleksandr came to Ukraine, but in 1919 he emigrated to Italy.

During the World War II following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland and annexation of West Ukraine and Belarus by the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church claims that he returned to church but was not able to arrive to Moscow for actual approval and by letter asked to retirement which was approved.

In summber of 1944 Metropolitan Aleksandr was forced to emigration due to the Soviet advancement moving to Munich where he came in contact with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) trying to join it.