Holy Week Means No Holy War: Remembering Fr Alexander Men – by Chris E.W. Green
Holy Week Means No Holy War: Remembering Fr Alexander Men in the Light of Christ’s Glorious Passion
Chris E.W. Green
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Given what is happening, and what is about to happen, in Russia and Ukraine, Holy Week is an especially fitting time to remember Fr Alexander Men, who was murdered (some say martyred) in 1990, after more than thirty years of priestly service and public witness in and around Moscow. Unsurprisingly, Fr Men’s work for renewal met with resistance from national as well as ecclesial authorities. And, as s Michael Plekon explains, even after his death he remained a controversial figure, at least in some circles.
In the last few years of his life, Men became a somewhat prominent figure, a voice for a truly worldly Christianity. But early on Sunday morning, September 9, 1990, on his way to serve the Divine Liturgy, Fr Men was attacked, struck in the skull from behind with an axe. He managed to drag himself back to his house but died in the hospital from loss of blood. He was only 55 years old. In the days before his death, he seems to have had some sense that the end was near.
The following is an excerpt from one of Fr Men’s sermons commemorating the martyred St Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow, whom Fr Men revered as an icon of faithful witness. Given its tragic relevance, it is worth quoting at length:
… In the history of our motherland, there were two periods in which tyranny paralyzed our people: the reign of Tsar Ivan, whom we call “Terrible,” and again in the time of Stalin, who admired Ivan and tried to follow his bloody example. Across the centuries, he perceived in that executioner a kindred spirit. And so it was that Ivan the Terrible, who struck fear in the heart of the church and the people of Russia, was doomed to live in fear…
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