Biography

Father Aleksandr Men

Aleksandr Men was born in Moscow on January 22, 1935 into a Jewish family. Aleksandr's father was said to be a nonbeliever, his mother Yelena was always fascinated by Christianity. 

It was the time of the fiercest persecutions of the Church, many thousands of Christians were shot and some hundred of thousand were exiled to prison camps for their faith. Nonetheless, however, a tiny portion of the Church in the country remained at liberty, giving origin to secret parishes, so-called Catacomb Church.

And so, six months after the birth of young Aleksandr, he and his mother were secretly baptized by a priest of the Catacomb Church, Father Seraphim Batyukov, who died in 194, leaving an indelible mark on Aleksandr's destiny. Baptism, daily communion, and Father Seraphim's spiritual guidance of played a great role not only in the daily lives of Yelena and her son, but also in the 7-year-old Aleksandr's decision to become a priest.

Yelena and her sons (the brothers Aleksandr and Pavel) spent the years of World War II in their village, while the father was evacuated together with all workers of the factory where he was employed as an engineer.

Having finished school, Aleksandr enrolled in the Moscow Fur Institute, where he studied for just one year, and then he continued his studies at the Irkutsk Agriculture Institute, from which he was kicked out in 1958 for his religious beliefs. That same year, about a month after his expulsion, Aleksandr Men was ordained as a deacon. In 1965, having studied at the Leningrad Spiritual Academy and become a priest, he graduated in absentia from the Moscow Spiritual Academy.

Continuing the spiritual tradition of the “invisible parish”, the simple priest Aleksandr Men gave a tremendous contribution to Russia’s spiritual renaissance. In a certain sense, he was one of the most significant authors of the climate that led to perestroika.

From 1970, Father Aleksandr served in the Purification Church of Novaya Derevnya, a suburb of Pushkin. Over the course of the rest of his life Aleksandr Men preached and served as a spiritual adviser to many parishioners. He had enormous authority. Many young intellectuals came from Moscow to see him in his parish in the village of Novaya Derevnya. In doing so, he brought the intelligentsia to Christianity. He wrote many relevant books which were published abroad under various pseudonyms because the anti-religious propaganda was still strong in the U.S.S.R. The most famous of his books, “Son of Man”, was devoted to the very person of Christ. It was the final tome in a seven-volume study of the spiritual history of humanity, “The History of Religion: In Search of the Way, the Truth and Life”. Today, these books have been translated into a variety of languages, not to mention being published in Russian. In the late ‘80s, he was among the first to utilize the mass media to spread the message of Christ, teaching and lecturing became his daily work.

Father Aleksandr was also an active supporter of charitable work, and he was one of the founders of the Charity Group of the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, which was later named after him and became a significant charitable organization. He was one of the founders of the Russian Bible Society in 1990, and that same year he founded the Open Orthodox University and “The World of the Bible” journal.

At times during his speeches Father Aleksandr received notes with threats. On Sunday, September 9, 1990, Father Aleksandr was murdered. The priest left his home in the morning, heading for church to celebrate the liturgy. An unknown person split his head open with an ax. 

On September 11, on the feast of the beheading of John the Baptist (the “Forerunner” in Orthodox terminology), archpriest Aleksandr Men was buried in the cemetery of the Purification Church in Novaya Derevnya, the same church where he served for twenty years. The funeral was led by Metropolitan Juvenaly (Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna, in the Moscow region) with many priests, among whom were some of his spiritual children.

Just when it seemed that the fetters of repression had loosened, and an unexpected religious freedom seemed to have been achieved, Father Aleksandr's murder took place. His violent death closed his mouth, but could not silence him. His books, along with the tape-recordings of his voice that have been preserved, still speak. His death serves even today as a revealing example for many believers, both in Russia and in Western countries. 

Background

The Chapel of the Beheading of John the Forerunner

At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, not far from the village of Psaryovo, there was a town called Nikolskoye, named after a church existing there. At the end of the 17th century, the town was deserted, although the church and cemetery continued to exist until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1929, a town was build along the railroad with the strange name Semkhoz. People who lived there asked several times to have the name of this glorious place changed back to its original designation — Nikolskoye-Poddubnoye. 

This is where archpriest Aleksandr Men lived. At the spot where the chapel now stands, a murder struck a mortal blow on the pastor at 6:30 a.m. on September 9, 1990, while he was on his way to the church for Sunday service.

Father Aleksandr's funeral service was performed by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, who read the words of the Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II: “To the human understanding, it would seem that just now the time has come when the talent of Father Aleksandr as a preacher of the word of God and a re-creator of the genuine communal parish life, could reveal itself in all of its strength. Alas, it turned out differently, the Lord called on him to perform the holy sacred service for Him... I have faith that in the memories of the people and the Church the sizable things that Father Aleksandr really did for them will remain.” 

At his graveside speech His Eminence Juvenaly said the following words to characterize Father Aleksandr's service to the Church: “He was in schools, in factories, in big workers' lecture halls, and among the intelligentsia. Preaching the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who saved the world, Father Aleksandr found the right words for everyone... Today, as we stand around the grave of a genuine pastor who loved the Church, who was faithful to it until the very last... I believe that we all, in the name of that terrible sacrifice and loss for to the Church, will be united, united in the flock that was gathered by Christ. We will use our lives as testimony to the fact that we are faithful sons and daughters of the Holy Church and our Lord Jesus Christ!”

A chapel on the site of his murder was built in 1995 by V.D. Zhuravlyov with funds from V.I. Krulikovsky and other donors and volunteers. In September 1998, the church was ceremoniously given to the Moscow Dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Aleksandr Men Foundation. On May 25, 1999, with a benediction from  Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, the altar was consecrated. Ever since, the Divine Liturgy has been held every Sunday for parishioners and visiting worshipers.