This biographical article tells the reader about the Archpriest Vasily Gavriilovich Rozhdestvensky (1839–1917), his theological and polemical writings, and pedagogical activities in late 19th – early 20th centuries. Although Rozhdestvensky has for decades held professorial positions in two main institutions of higher education in St Petersburg, his life and works remain sadly understudied. He held the chair of the department of New Testament at the St Petersburg Spiritual Academy and he was Professor of theology at the Imperial St Petersburg University from 1874 to 1915. Despite the broad range of topics he chose for his published works (from New Testament Lower Criticism to pedagogy) he was, primarily, an apologist throughout his entire career. The university course of the Orthodox Christian theology was compulsory for all undergraduates but had no officially approved standard, which left some freedom with the lecturer. Rozhdestvensky treated this subject as a course in systematic apologetics. He treated theology as a solid science that guards the morale of a personality and of society as well. Rozhdestvensky’s long professorial career in the Imperial St Petersburg University may, at least partly, indicate that his opinion of the university theological instruction was viewed as acceptable by the Russian Imperial authorities of public education.