Alexandermen (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alexandermen) wrote,@ 2007-11-25 10:59:00 |
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I-12 "On the Road to the Church" The Death of Fr Alexander. Yves Hamant +James Nicholls Photo.
This is from Yves Hamant's biography "Alexander Men." I have
added some photographs , including one taken by photographer
James Nicholls of the site of the assasination with its simple
marker and a slide from the Sergei Bezsmeertny
filmstrip.
On the Road to the Church
"On this particular Sunday, September 9,1990, as he did every Sunday
Fr Alexander Men got up very early in the morning to celebrate the liturgy
in the little country church some twenty-five miles away, a church he had
been serving for the past twenty years. Carrying his ever-present briefcase,
he pushed open the garden gate and walked rapidly toward the station to
take a suburban train coming from Moscow. In the morning mist, he took
the narrow path through some trees which were beginning to lose their
leaves. A long day lay ahead of him. He would certainly be busy until
the beginning of the afternoon when, without losing any time, he would
take another train back to Moscow. There in the Volkhonka Street cultural
center he would give the second half of a lecture on Christianity.
In 1988, the Soviet authorities had changed their policy toward believers.
From that time on, Fr Alexander openly pursued the activities which up to
that time he had carried on in near secrecy: he worked to transmit the Gospel
to his fellow citizens. On September 1 1990, he had just celebrated the
thirtiety anniversary of his ordination. Ever since the change in policy,
he had not had a single moment's rest. His situation was unique in the
Soviet Union: for seventy years beleivers had been reduced to silence, and
Fr Alexander ,who had been under the eye of a whole team of KGB agents, was
now continually invited to speak in shcools, institutes,clubs,and cultural
centers. At Easter he had baptized sixty adults. He spent his energies
without thinking twice, while his friends and family worried about him.
Fr Alexander though paid no attention to their advice. He certainly had
appeared anxious at recent time,though, and this was very much out of
character for him. He indeed loved nature, and the few minutes spent walking
the length of the wood as the autumn colors danced on the first rays of the
sun, no doubt strengthened him. The landscape in that area did not seem to
have any particular character,and yet the place was special. The Holy
Trinity-St. Serfius Monastery, and important center for the Russian
Orthodox Church ,was located a few miles from there. There in the beginning
of the fourteenth centyury, St Sergius had founded a hermitage in the middle
of the forest,which gave Russia a great spiritual inspiration after having
been deeply wounded by the invasion of the terrible Mongol warriors of
Genghis Khan. Andrey Rublev had been a monk there, and it was for this
monastery that he had painted the famous icon of the Holy Trinity. St Sergius
was born in a nearby village and had often taken the very path on which
Fr Alexander was walking...
Some time later,his wife, who had stayed home, opened the window and heard
a groaning sound. She ran into the garden and,behind the gate, she saw a
man on the ground in a pool of blood. Running into the house she called an
ambulance and the police. When she went out again, the ambulance had
already arrived. "Why don't you do something?" she asked the doctors.
"It's too late", they answered. She finally moved toward the man; there was
a lot of blood, but she did not dare look. Then she asked, "Has my husband
arrived?" Someone asked if he had been wearing a gray hat. They had found
auch a hat with a big hole in it.
Somewhat later, witnesses came forward who had passed Fr. Men going in the
other direction: bleeding profusely, he had turned around and walked to his
home. He had not wanted anyone to help him. He must have collapsed in front
of the gate, having lost nearly all his blood from a deep gash in the
back of his head,caused by an axe. The circumstances of the crime and the
precision of the blow seem to indicate that the attack was carefully
prepared and carried out by professionals...
Some days before his death, Fr Alexander had concluded a lecture about
a Russian Orthodox nun {St. Maria Skobtsova], an emigre from Paris,
who had been part of the resistance during the war and who had been killed
by the Nazis. "To give oneself Completely is to fulfill the Gospel. Only in
this way can the world bde saved." To give one's self completely..."
Yves Hamant. Oakwood Publications distributed by SVS Press
Alexander Men house. photo from early 1990s.
.
place where Fr Men was struck down
photograph by James Nicholls 1991
.
The marker as it is today
.
a memorial chapel was built first at the site (the farther one)
and then St Sergius Church in the foreground. Photo 2006
.
The path through the woods from home to road.
.
Father Alexander's grave at the church he served in Novaya Derevnya.
Metropolitan Juvenaly leads a memorial prayer.
.
.
Funeral
This is from Yves Hamant's biography "Alexander Men." I have
added some photographs , including one taken by photographer
James Nicholls of the site of the assasination with its simple
marker and a slide from the Sergei Bezsmeertny
filmstrip.
On the Road to the Church
"On this particular Sunday, September 9,1990, as he did every Sunday
Fr Alexander Men got up very early in the morning to celebrate the liturgy
in the little country church some twenty-five miles away, a church he had
been serving for the past twenty years. Carrying his ever-present briefcase,
he pushed open the garden gate and walked rapidly toward the station to
take a suburban train coming from Moscow. In the morning mist, he took
the narrow path through some trees which were beginning to lose their
leaves. A long day lay ahead of him. He would certainly be busy until
the beginning of the afternoon when, without losing any time, he would
take another train back to Moscow. There in the Volkhonka Street cultural
center he would give the second half of a lecture on Christianity.
In 1988, the Soviet authorities had changed their policy toward believers.
From that time on, Fr Alexander openly pursued the activities which up to
that time he had carried on in near secrecy: he worked to transmit the Gospel
to his fellow citizens. On September 1 1990, he had just celebrated the
thirtiety anniversary of his ordination. Ever since the change in policy,
he had not had a single moment's rest. His situation was unique in the
Soviet Union: for seventy years beleivers had been reduced to silence, and
Fr Alexander ,who had been under the eye of a whole team of KGB agents, was
now continually invited to speak in shcools, institutes,clubs,and cultural
centers. At Easter he had baptized sixty adults. He spent his energies
without thinking twice, while his friends and family worried about him.
Fr Alexander though paid no attention to their advice. He certainly had
appeared anxious at recent time,though, and this was very much out of
character for him. He indeed loved nature, and the few minutes spent walking
the length of the wood as the autumn colors danced on the first rays of the
sun, no doubt strengthened him. The landscape in that area did not seem to
have any particular character,and yet the place was special. The Holy
Trinity-St. Serfius Monastery, and important center for the Russian
Orthodox Church ,was located a few miles from there. There in the beginning
of the fourteenth centyury, St Sergius had founded a hermitage in the middle
of the forest,which gave Russia a great spiritual inspiration after having
been deeply wounded by the invasion of the terrible Mongol warriors of
Genghis Khan. Andrey Rublev had been a monk there, and it was for this
monastery that he had painted the famous icon of the Holy Trinity. St Sergius
was born in a nearby village and had often taken the very path on which
Fr Alexander was walking...
Some time later,his wife, who had stayed home, opened the window and heard
a groaning sound. She ran into the garden and,behind the gate, she saw a
man on the ground in a pool of blood. Running into the house she called an
ambulance and the police. When she went out again, the ambulance had
already arrived. "Why don't you do something?" she asked the doctors.
"It's too late", they answered. She finally moved toward the man; there was
a lot of blood, but she did not dare look. Then she asked, "Has my husband
arrived?" Someone asked if he had been wearing a gray hat. They had found
auch a hat with a big hole in it.
Somewhat later, witnesses came forward who had passed Fr. Men going in the
other direction: bleeding profusely, he had turned around and walked to his
home. He had not wanted anyone to help him. He must have collapsed in front
of the gate, having lost nearly all his blood from a deep gash in the
back of his head,caused by an axe. The circumstances of the crime and the
precision of the blow seem to indicate that the attack was carefully
prepared and carried out by professionals...
Some days before his death, Fr Alexander had concluded a lecture about
a Russian Orthodox nun {St. Maria Skobtsova], an emigre from Paris,
who had been part of the resistance during the war and who had been killed
by the Nazis. "To give oneself Completely is to fulfill the Gospel. Only in
this way can the world bde saved." To give one's self completely..."
Yves Hamant. Oakwood Publications distributed by SVS Press
Alexander Men house. photo from early 1990s.
.place where Fr Men was struck down
photograph by James Nicholls 1991
.The marker as it is today
.a memorial chapel was built first at the site (the farther one)
and then St Sergius Church in the foreground. Photo 2006
.The path through the woods from home to road.
.Father Alexander's grave at the church he served in Novaya Derevnya.
Metropolitan Juvenaly leads a memorial prayer.
..Funeral
