How my father Alexander was killed. How the Orthodox Relate to Alexander Menu

Alexander Vladimirovich Men - Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, theologian, preacher, author of books on theology, history of Christianity and other religions, on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, Orthodox worship. In 1959-1961. published about 40 articles in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. Published in Brussels under a pseudonym: the series "In Search of the Way, Truth and Life" (books 1-6, 1970-1983; pseudonym E. Svetlov), "Son of Man" (1969, pseudonym A. Bogolyubov), "Sacrament, Word and the image "(1980) and others; in the homeland, books have been published since 1990 without a pseudonym. Known for his ecumenical and liberal-modernist views. He was killed in 1990. The circumstances, motive and culprit of this crime remained unclear.

Alexander Men
Occupation: Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, theologian and preacher
Date of birth: January 22, 1935
Place of birth: Moscow, USSR
Citizenship: USSR
Died: September 9, 1990
Place of death: Semkhoz, Moscow region, USSR
Children: Elena, Mikhail

Grave of the archpriest Alexandra Men at the Sretenskaya church in Novaya Derevnya with the inscription "And whoever does and teaches, he will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven."
Born in Moscow and named Alexander. Father Wolf Gersh-Leibovich (Vladimir Grigorievich) Men was born in 1902, in Kiev, as a child he studied at a religious Jewish school, “remembered Hebrew,… read the prophets by heart”, but “was… a non-religious person”, “graduated from two universities, worked chief engineer of a textile factory ".

Memorial Day of the Archpriest Alexandra Men in Sergiev Posad, Archpriest Valery Malyshkin, Priest Alexander Kolesnikov, Priest Viktor Grigorenko
The maternal ancestors ("obviously from Poland, judging by the name of the Vasilevskys ...") under Alexander I already lived in Russia. Grandmother, Cecilia Vasilevskaya, and grandfather, from Odessa, Semyon (Solomon) Ilyich Zuperfein, met in Switzerland, while studying at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Bern. In the same place, in Bern, in 1908 they had a daughter, Elena (mother of Father Alexander). After graduating from the university, Solomon and Cecilia lived with their daughter in Paris. In 1914, during his arrival in Russia, Semyon Ilyich was mobilized, and the family settled in Kharkov. Elena Semyonovna Men (nee Zuperfein) from her youth was drawn to Christianity. She studied Orthodox doctrine at the Kharkov private gymnasium. As a high school student, she left for Moscow, to her grandmother Anna Osipovna Vasilevskaya; in 1934 she married Vladimir Grigorievich Men.

At the age of six months, Alexander was secretly baptized with his mother in Sergiev Posad by the priest of the Catacomb Church, Father Seraphim (Batyukov). When the boy was 6 years old, his father was arrested on false charges and spent more than a year in custody, and then until the end of the Great Patriotic War he was forced to work in the Urals.

Studied Men at the Moscow school number 1060 in Stremyanny lane.
In 1953 he entered the Moscow Fur and Fur Institute in Balashikha, which in 1955 was transferred to Irkutsk. In March 1958 he was expelled for religious beliefs.
A month after his expulsion, on June 1, 1958, he was ordained a deacon, and on September 1, 1960 (after graduating from the Leningrad Theological Seminary) - a priest. In 1965 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy by correspondence.

In 1964, at about. I was searched, in 1974 he wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU about a group led by Alexander Menem... In 1985, he was almost imprisoned, but Metropolitan Yuvenaly stood up for him.
Served in a number of parishes near Moscow. In 1989-1990, he was rector of the Sretenskaya Church in Novaya Derevnya (microdistrict of the city of Pushkino). A unique combination of wide erudition, openness to secular culture, science, to other confessions, non-Christian religions and the energy aimed at understanding each interlocutor made me one of the leading Christian preachers.
He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Detective and Politics.

Creation
Father Alexander's main work is "The History of Religion" in seven volumes, consisting of the series "In Search of the Way, Truth and Life" (vols. 1-6, Brussels, 1970-1983; 2nd ed. - M., 1991-1992) and books about Jesus "Son of Man" (Brussels, 1969, 2nd ed. M. 1991, vol. 7); in which the author considers the history of non-Christian religions as the path to Christianity in the struggle between magic and monotheism.

Father Alexander is also the author of the books "The Sacrament, Word, Image" (Brussels, 1980, 2nd ed. M. 1991) (first edition entitled "Heaven on Earth" (Brussels, 1969), "Where did all this come from?" (Naples , 1972), “How to read the Bible?” (Brussels, 1981), the Bibliological Dictionary (about 1840 terms (including a large number of redirects), Moscow, 2002) and numerous articles, mainly of preaching and apologetic content. English, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian and French.

Father Alexander Men is one of the founders of the Christian "samizdat" of the 1960s. Until the mid-1980s, his works were published mainly abroad under the pseudonyms E. Svetlov, A. Bogolyubov, A. Pavlov (the pseudonyms were given by foreign publishers without the consent of the author). Men was a spiritual mentor, and often the godfather of many dissidents of the 1970s and 1980s, although he himself refrained from active advocacy, seeing his mission in spiritual enlightenment.

Since the mid-1980s father Alexander Men - one of the most popular Christian preachers (including in the media). He was one of the founders of the Russian Bible Society in 1990, the Public Orthodox University, the World of the Bible magazine. Father Alexander actively supported charitable activities, standing at the origins of the creation of the Mercy Group at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, which was later named after him and became one of the significant charitable projects.

Murder

Cross at the scene of the murder in Semkhoz
During speeches, Father Alexander repeatedly received threatening notes. On the morning of September 9, 1990, he hurried to church for the liturgy. Presumably the following happened: a man ran up to him and handed him a note. Men took his glasses out of his pocket and began to read. At this time, another man jumped out of the bushes and hit him with force from behind with an ax (according to another version - with a sapper shovel). Bleeding, the priest walked towards the station. On the way, the woman asked: "Who are you, Father Alexander?" "No, no one, myself!" he replied. Then, losing strength, he turned back to the house, reached the gate and fell.

Despite the personal orders of the President of the USSR and the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, the murder remained unsolved.

Police Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Kirillovich Pankin says:
“When the suspect was detained, he made a confession. Interior Minister Barannikov was delighted: you can celebrate! However, apart from the confessions, there was no material evidence. And even when the suspect gave the investigation an ax with which he allegedly killed the priest, the examination did not confirm that it was a murder weapon. The briefcase with the priest's vestments also disappeared. A lot of versions were worked out, they paid attention to the little things. When the priest, with his head split open, reached the gate of his house, hung helplessly on it, his wife did not recognize him. Why? They also checked his wife's brother, who had a conflict with Alexander Mene on the eve of the murder. But no substantial evidence has been obtained. Already in Afghanistan, I heard that the crime was allegedly solved. This was announced by the then head of the GUUR Kolesnikov. But they all worked with the same suspects. "
At the place of the priest's death in the Semkhoz microdistrict (now within the city of Sergiev Posad), a church has been erected in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh, in which the Divine Liturgy is regularly celebrated. With the blessing of Metropolitan of Krutitsky and Kolomna Yuvenaly, the scientific and theological conference "Menev Readings" is held annually.

Views

The following quotes express ecumenical ideas father Alexander Men.

"The Origins of Religions", chapter 4 ("Man before God"):

“Perhaps the difference in the knowledge of God of religious geniuses, such as Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Seraphim of Sarov, and people of an ordinary level is that for the latter, a meeting with God is like an instant flash of lightning, followed by darkness again , and the first with all their being joined the Divine life and themselves became its carriers. "
"History of Religions", Volume 3, Chapter 5 ("The Riddle of the Higher Self"):

“Following the path laid by contemplation, Indian brahmanas come to the same thing that all mystics came to, at whatever time and in whatever nation they may live. Yajnavalkya and Buddha, Plotinus and Areopagite, Meister Eckhart and Gregory Palamas, Kabbalists and Nikolai Kuzansky, Jacob Boehme, Reisbruck and many other clairvoyants of the East and West, with a unanimity that involuntarily thrills, proclaim what they have learned to the very the limits of being. All of them, as one, testify that everything conceivable and imaginable disappears there, that there is nothing and at the same time - ineffable Fullness. There it is impossible to find any of the properties of the world, nature and spirit; there is no good, no evil, no light, no darkness, no movement, no peace. There reigns something that transcends the deepest human thought, transcends being itself. In the sacred darkness that hides the basis of the foundations, they felt the reality of Being, the Absolute. A terrible, intolerable secret! .. "

"Letters to the spiritual daughter Alexandra Orlova-Model":

“Ecumenism has two origins: either a genuine broad and deep spirituality that does not fear the alien, or a superficial confusion of everything in a heap. Of course, I am for the first type of ecumene. But few reach him. Hence your observations. In the words of the abbot about the saints that they are "strangers" - not only limitation, but unwillingness to accommodate a different experience. And the peculiarities of this experience do not relate to the gospel as such. Their source is cultural tradition and ethnopsychology ... To say that 700 million Catholics and 350 million Protestants are in error, and that we alone are a true church means to be in insane pride, which is not justified by anything. "
Reviews about the activities and works of Archpriest Alexander Men

History of religion

Positive ratings
Many Orthodox people assess positively the activities and works of Father Alexander Men. So, in the opinion,

“Father Alexander was a talented preacher of the word of God, a good pastor of the Church, he possessed a generous soul and a heart devoted to the Lord. The murderers did their dirty work at a time when he could still do so much for the spiritual enlightenment and nourishment of the children of the Church. Not all of his judgments were fully shared by Orthodox theologians, but none of them contradicted the essence of Holy Scripture. Where it is emphasized that there must be differences of opinion between you, in order for the most skilled to appear (1 Cor. 11, 19). "

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, many years after the death of Father Alexander, spoke of him very emotionally:

“We dare not talk about our abandonment, about loneliness, about orphanhood! Father Alexander did not die, but joined the Divine Life, remained for his own - known and unknown, a Good Shepherd, a prayer book, an intercessor, an intercessor! And he calls everyone who loved him, who saw in him the image of a true Christian to the Path of the Cross and to the glory of the Resurrection! "Be my followers, as I am a follower of Christ!" "

Metropolitan of Krutitsky and Kolomna Yuvenaly on the day of the 20th anniversary of the tragic death father Alexander Menhaving performed the funeral Liturgy and the litiya for the murdered man, he highly appreciated his pastoral and educational activities:

“Fr. Alexander, one might say, consulting only with his own conscience, in those years devoted all the fervor of his soul to serving Christ and the Church. We know that at times he stood out from among the co-pastors for his zeal for pastoral and educational activities. "
“A lot of things that Fr. Alexander, for not everything was allowed then, is now being done in every parish. And people somehow forget about the value of the freedom that the Church has now. But then it was a heroic deed, courage - not only zealous pastoral service, but also sacrificial educational service. We can testify that the seed sown by Fr. Alexander, fell on good ground. "
According to Archbishop Mikhail (Mudyugin),

“All his knowledge, encyclopedic erudition, the most diverse interests in science, fiction, art, all his talents, bestowed upon him by God, Father Alexander put into the service of preaching. He preached tirelessly. He always preached on principle, moreover, in a language accessible to his contemporaries ... He was a man of extraordinary spirituality, who led an ascetic life and ended it martyrically. But on the blood of martyrs, as is known since ancient times, seeds of Christian evangelism sprout, the Church of Christ grows and strengthens ... Father Alexander was truly a prophet of modern times and a harbinger of the evangelization of the entire ministry of the Orthodox Church, evangelization that meets the urgent needs and aspirations of the Orthodox people. "

Priest Georgy Chistyakov believed that:

“Father Alexander was one of the people who are not afraid. He was not afraid to go to hospitals to the seriously ill and dying, although it was strictly forbidden, he was not afraid to preach and, moreover, talk about faith with children, practically openly violating Soviet legislation. He was not afraid of the language of his era and, unlike almost all of his brothers, he was able (like the Apostle Paul) to speak with the “pagans” about Christ in the language of these pagans. He was not afraid to synthesize the experience of his predecessors, very different and sometimes mutually exclusive, and he did it surprisingly well, because he did it not at the human level, but at the level of God's love. I was not afraid of the new. "
Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, speaking of Father Alexander, emphasizes the historical context in which he had to live and whose challenges he had to answer:

“As a preacher, Father Alexander developed in the 60s. These were the years of “triumphant” atheism, the years of euphoria associated with the success of scientific and technological revolution, the years of space flights and positivist self-confidence. Even those who did not consider themselves communists sincerely saw religion as just a misunderstanding. And the task of a preacher in an atheistic country was clear: look, it is only in our time and in our country that believers are a frightened minority. But in other countries and in other times everything was different. The entire world culture was created by believers. If there was anyone who ensured the moral progress of peoples, it was religions. It is not true that religion is darkness: there is good in any religion and, by the way, in Christianity. It was necessary at all costs to show that the best values \u200b\u200bthat exist in the sub-Soviet secular culture are not alien to Christianity and are shared by it. The dignity of the individual, creativity, freedom, boldness - all this is in Christianity and, by and large, only there and can be logically justified. "

Criticism
At the same time, representatives of the conservative circles of the Russian Orthodox Church argue that some of the statements of Father Alexander Men contradict the foundations of the Orthodox teaching; criticized his ecumenical views. He was also accused of sympathizing with Catholicism. The well-known Orthodox theologian, Professor of the Moscow Academy of Sciences A.I. Osipov and Protodeacon-missionary Andrei Kuraev did not recommend the books of Archpriest Alexander Men for acquaintance with Orthodoxy.

Protodeacon on the Catholicism of Alexander Men and the attitude of an Orthodox person to this Catholicism (from the article "Alexander Men: The Lost Missionary"):

“The fact that the writer Alexander Men is a Uniate does not mean in any way that his books should be removed from the library of an Orthodox person. In the book collection of any theologian, student, seminarian there is a lot of Christian literature written by non-Orthodox authors. These books are read, appreciated, used. But it is always more convenient to know in advance what confessional views a writer holds. This will make it easier to separate the facts or unquestionably Christian judgments they are reporting from those brought about by confessional bias. You can give a person a book by a Catholic theologian to read, but at the same time it is better to warn him in advance that the author of this wonderful book is a Catholic, and that therefore one should not recklessly agree with some of his judgments about the place of the pope. Reading books about. Alexandra, just keep in mind that you are reading pro-Catholic books. Catholic does not mean bad and does not always mean heretical. It's just that if you want to form an idea of \u200b\u200bOrthodoxy in that depth that distinguishes it from Catholicism, you need to look for other books. "

Kuraev also spoke about the legacy of Alexander Men in the light of today:

“This is the fate of a missionary: the one who speaks the language of his contemporary culture becomes too outdated when that culture is gone. Today we live in a different world. Triumphant atheism was replaced by triumphant occultism. Everyone is playing with beads with words like "karma", "horoscope", "astral", "cosmic ray". Almost all religions of the world came to our house and in a united chorus declared Christianity "obsolete". And here a completely different intonation turned out to be necessary, not the one that was in the books of Father Alexander Men. When the islets of Christianity are threatened to be swallowed up by the occult element, it is no longer up to the search for "common". Time to draw boundaries, dividing lines. It's time to conflict. Christ is not only the One for whom "all nations expect". He is also the One Whom the priests of all popular religions rejected. It is a scandal for the Jews (σκανδαλον) and madness for the Greeks. "

In the "Open letter to the priest Alexander Menu", written by Metropolitan Anthony (Melnikov) (however, the letter was not signed, therefore there are doubts about the authorship of Metropolitan Anthony), he in particular writes: "You are not a newcomer to the church, Father Alexander. So when you you unite in your interpretation the One God of Christians and Ancient Israel with the “god” of modern Judaism the devil, you do this deliberately, knowingly mixing light with darkness. "

Missionary priest Daniel Sysoev considered Alexander Me a heretic, listing 9 basic views of Me, incompatible with Orthodoxy:
Manichaeism. - The doctrine of the complicity of Satan in the creation of the world, the result of which was the alleged evolution.
The doctrine of man as a transformed monkey. Contradicts the definition of the V Ecumenical Council against Origen (it was proclaimed there that the soul and body appeared at the same time. With regard to the teachings of Me, his opinion was condemned by the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate on December 7, 1935 in the case of Archpriest S. Bulgakov)
Rejection of the inspiration of Holy Scripture (see the anathemas of the week of Orthodoxy).
Rejection of original sin and postulation of the independence of death from human sin (see 124 right. Carthage Council)
The rejection of the existence of a personal Adam and the introduction of the Kabbalistic teaching about Adam Kadmon.
Rejection of the authorship of almost all Old Testament books (see the anathemas against Theodore of Mopsuestia V Ecumenical Council).
In the doctrine of the Church - the adoption of the theory of branches (condemned by the Jubilee Council in 2000).
Syncretism, condemned (together with Theosophy) at the Council of 1994
The encouragement of magic and extrasensory perception (in a lecture to students at the school of psychics) entails 25 years of excommunication from the Communion. And it is almost the only one of the wines that brings down two punishments at once on a priest - defrocking and excommunication. (Rules of the VI Ecumenical Council, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, etc.)
- http://www.cirota.ru/forum/message.php?id\u003d318161 (http://www.webcitation.org/6X4IKyLNU)
Archpriest Konstantin Bufeev, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, criticized Alexandra Men, considering his views as a substitution of the Orthodox faith with heretical evolutionist ideas.
Similar accusations against Fr. Alexander is also heard from the Catholic traditionalists.

Editions of Alexander Men

Orthodox worship. Title page

History of religion in seven volumes. Title page of 1 volume

History of religion. Volume 5 cover

History of religion. Output data and abstract of 1 volume

Family
Father - Vladimir Grigorievich (Wolf Gersh-Leibovich) Men (1902 -)
Mother - Elena Semyonovna (Solomonovna) Men (nee Zuperfein; 1908 - January 15, 1979)
Wife - Natalia Grigorenko (originally from the town of Kobelyaki, Poltava region, Ukraine)
Daughter - Elena Men (born 1957) - icon painter
Son - Mikhail Men (born 1960) - Russian politician, Governor of the Ivanovo Region (2005-2013), Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation since November 1, 2013.
Mother's cousin - Vera Yakovlevna Vasilevskaya (1902-1975), teacher-defectologist, memoirist.

Bibliography

The works of Fr. Alexandra

History of religion. In Search of the Way, Truth and Life (in 7 volumes) (Moscow, 1991-92)
Volume 1. The origins of religion
Volume 2. Magism and Monotheism. The religious path of humanity before the era of the great Teachers
Volume 3. At the gates of Silence. The spiritual life of China and India in the middle of the first millennium BC
Volume 4. Dionysus, Logos, Destiny. Greek religion and philosophy from colonization to Alexander
Volume 5. Messengers of the Kingdom of God. Biblical prophets from Amos to the Restoration (7-4 centuries BC)
Volume 6. On the Threshold of the New Testament
Volume 7. Son of Man
First Apostles (not completed)
History of Religion (textbook in 2 volumes) (Moscow, 1997)
Volume 1. In Search of the Way, Truth and Life
Volume 2. Ways of Christianity
Bibliological Dictionary (in 3 volumes) (Moscow, 2002)
Volume 1. A-I
Volume 2. K-P
Volume 3. P-Z
Sacrament, word and image. On Orthodox worship (Moscow, 1991)
Isagogy. Old Testament Scripture Study Course
Light to the world. A gospel story retold for children
A Practical Guide to Prayer
Reading the apocalypse
Father Alexander answers questions
Magic, occultism, Christianity. Lectures
World spiritual culture. Lectures
The difficult path to dialogue. Collection of articles and essays (Moscow, 1992)
Good news. Lectures and talks (Moscow, 1992)
Light shines in the dark
Death trampling on death (Minsk, 1990)
"Be a Christian." Moscow. Protestant, 1994
I believe ... Conversations about the Symbol of Faith (Moscow, 2001)
Why is it difficult for us to believe in God? Conversations and answers to questions
Articles from the collection "Christianos" (Riga)
Articles from the "Symbol" magazine (No. 43, September 2000)
Articles from the magazine "Vestnik RDKh" (Paris-New York-Moscow)
“... your Fr. Alexander". Correspondence with father Alexander Menem (St. Petersburg, 1999)
Smart sky. Correspondence between Archpriest Alexander Men and Nun Ioanna (Moscow, 2002)
“Alexander Men. About myself…". Memories, interviews, conversations, letters (Moscow, 2007)
All books…. Site library Alexander Men Foundation

Literature about Father Alexander

Grigorenko N., Men P. (compilers). Alexander Men. About me ... (Memories, interviews, conversations, letters). - M .: Life with God, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-903612-08-6.
Aman I. Father Alexander Men. Christ's witness in our time \u003d Yves Hamant. Alexandre Men, un temoin pour la Russie de ce temps. - Paris: Editions Mame, 1993 / Gromova T.V. (translated from French). - M .: Rudomino, 1994.
Bychkov S. Chronicle of an unsolved murder. - M., 1996.
Maslenikova Z.A.Life of Father Alexander Men. - M .: Pristssels, Russlit, 1995 .-- 5000 copies. (2nd ed., M .: Zakharov, 2002, 414 p.)
Eremin A. Shepherd at the turn of the century. - M .: Cart Blanche; Paper Gallery, 2001 .-- 496 p.
Zorin A. Angel-laborer. - M .: Progress-Culture, 1993 .-- 192 p. - ISBN 5-01-003941-9.
Ten years without Me. Index, 2000, No. 11. http://index.org.ru/journal/11/+(2000). - Thematic. release. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
Fainberg V., Levi V., Zavalov M., Zhurinskaya M. Rivers of living water. - M., 2003.

Kolupaev VE Brussels publishing house "Life with God": the Book World of the Russian Diaspora of the XX century. Radio Commission for Soviet Listeners. Saarbrücken. 2012.336 p., Ill.

nicholas / 2.12.2016 Kingdom of Heaven and Vichna Memory of a good HUSBAND, a talented preacher!

Sergei / 17.11.2016 Do not create an idol for yourself ...
Is it worth relying only on his books for understanding ?! Maybe you need to read a couple, three sources in order to compose not his thought forms, but your understanding ?!
Good luck and all the best!

Alexander / 8.02.2016 How can one condemn someone who opened people's eyes to the origins of Christianity? Did he distort the facts, did he call to resist the Faith? Or is it true? This is the truth of the Gospels! But there are the servants of the devil, and they bring confusion, trying to sow confusion among the people. Words spoken by Alexander Menem, words of truth! And all spiteful critics shame and disgrace! Praise the Lord, the Son of God Jesus Christ!

hope / 12/13/2015 just shocked by the nastiness pouring on a person, I feel sorry for people who do not understand what is good and what is bad.o. And Men is a very good person without knowing him personally, he helps me and now reading his books and his letters. If all the priests had been like that, it would have been easier to live and evil would have gone, but alas.

Peter / 4.07.2015 Gersh-Leibovich (Men) has never been a Christian. In his books, the glorification of Judaism. With money from foreign grants, Men was corrupting the church from within. And, judging by the reviews, it was quite successful!

Vlad / 4.07.2015 Albert Gersh-Leibovich (for the goyim - Father Alexander Men) "worshiped the devil. For there is no truth in him; when he speaks a lie, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Such deliberate devil worship was and remains a lot of a few specially dedicated spiritual leaders and teachers of Israel. " The death of Albert Gersh-Leibovich turned out to be a boon for the peasantry.

Ludmila / 05/06/2015 Zoya, you are Maslenikova. How I envy you, kindly envy you. You knew Father Alexander during his lifetime, you were a parishioner of the church where he served, you were his friend. Thank you for the book you wrote about him. I read it in one breath.

Vyacheslav / 20.09.2014 Surprisingly wise books. I read every day.

zoya / 03/14/2014 Father Alexander I has a face like a prophet. The photographs show the swiftness, the focus of his gaze. His books are like living water for me.

Zoya / 26.01.2014 I want to collect all the books of Father Alexander Men, make a library so that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren can read my father. There are few such priests. God, how I love him!

Zoya / 26.01.2014 Thanks to the books of Father Alexander, I learned about Christ, about Christianity. His books speak of a complex, accessible language. It is very sad that his books are not sold in candle boxes in Orthodox Churches, I do not understand. After all, it is obvious that rejecting the books of his father Alexander Me, our Orthodoxy infringes upon itself, causes itself irreparable harm. His book "The Son of Man", When you read it, there is a meeting with Christ, and this is the most important thing for a Christian. Here is what a powerful book it is.

Svetlana / 13.04.2013 I thank the creators of the site for such a generous offer of wonderful books! All the best to you!

Priest Roman, Kharkov / 26.09.2012 Alexander Men is an example for me!

nihil / 14.09.2012 Our dear Father Alexander! Unfortunately there is no way for you to hear me. But everyone is naive to write to the authors in these reviews. Well, I'll write to Space, and suddenly it will fly: D. And although you were wary of Theosophy, much of what you said is saturated with it. And you carried the main idea of \u200b\u200bT.O. - Brotherhood of people - through Christianity. I think that knowledge of the history of religions - deeper than that of other Christians - led you to the unity of the Source. The biggest thing that saddens you is looking at the T.O. as a whole. But after the departure of the Founders, it made a big tilt, like all human endeavors, and A. Besant's attempt to make a new Christ out of Krishnamurti is only madness, condemned by E. Roerich in her letters. Again, it is obvious that Besant did not understand the very word Christ. Madame Blavatsky never said that Christ is a man! But only that Jesus was human. But the church does not deny this either. As for the destruction of temples, I have never read about it. And after all, even this was said by you in such a mild form of bewilderment that you doubt that this could have happened, all the more so come from such high Sources. Thank you for being there. And I recently read that time will cleanse the Truth from all delusions. And we will see the Light.

In the last years of the existence of the USSR, the name of Alexander Me was heard even by people far from religion. He was the spiritual mentor of many dissidents of the Soviet era, and he himself was accused of heresy. The tragic death of Fr. Alexandra is still a mystery.

The parents of one of the most famous contemporary Orthodox theologians were brought up in the traditions of Judaism. His father, Vladimir Georgievich (Wolf Gersh-Leibovich), was born in Kiev and received his primary religious education, but his entire subsequent life was far from religion. He graduated from two higher educational institutions and at one time was the chief engineer of the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya weaving factory. The mother of Alexander Men, Elena Semyonovna Zuperfein, came from an intelligent family, was born in Bern and lived abroad for a long time as a child. However, while still a student at the gymnasium, she showed interest in Orthodoxy and even attended lessons in the Law of God. Alexander Men was born in Moscow on January 22, 1935. When the boy was six months old, his mother was baptized with him in the True Orthodox (Catacomb) Church, which did not recognize the supremacy of the Moscow Patriarchate and was in an illegal position. Elena Men strictly followed Orthodox rituals, although in those days this could lead to sad consequences. However, the family could not avoid reprisals - in 1941, Wolf Men was arrested and then sent to work in the Urals.

Opportunities to get higher education for the son of the repressed were not very high. Alexander attended a children's biological circle, and then entered the hunting department of the Moscow Fur and Fur Institute. There he met a student

natalya Grigorenko, an assistant of the merchandising faculty, who later became his wife and reliable assistant in all matters. According to the recollections of Natalya Fedorovna, Alik Men both externally and in behavior was very different from all students. He wore boots, riding breeches and a wide-brimmed hat, grew a thick black beard, and in an unchanged bag over his shoulder there was always a Bible (which few knew about). The Grigorenko family was not religious (although the girl's mother sang in the church choir, for which she often got into trouble), however, Alexander's views and his plans to become a priest were received with understanding. In 1956, a wedding took place, and in 1958, a few months before graduation, Alexander was expelled from the institute for his religious beliefs.

After his expulsion, Men was ordained a deacon and entered the correspondence department of the Leningrad Theological Seminary. After graduation, he served as a priest in churches near Moscow, then entered the correspondence department of the Moscow Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1965. Despite the negative attitude towards believers in those years, the family of Alexander, who lived in the village of Semkhoz near Moscow, was open to communication with people, tolerant of other views and confessions. Outside the church, they wore ordinary clothes, and Natalya Fyodorovna even wore a trouser suit that was defiant for that time. Prominent representatives of the intelligentsia often visited my house, and many of them

they were baptized under the influence of Father Alexander. In 1969, Alexander Men defended his Ph.D. thesis on the study of monotheism in pre-Christian beliefs.

Fr. Alexander's worldview was formed under the influence of such authorities of Orthodox thought as V.S. Soloviev, N.A. Berdyaev, O. P. Florensky and others. He deeply studied the works of Catholic theologians, especially Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Ever since his studies at the theological seminary, Alexander Men published in the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", took part in the translation and preparation for publication of the works of Francis de Sales. However, the first literary works of Me were born in the tradition of samizdat, which was popular at that time, and later were published abroad. In 1969, Father Alexander's first book "The Son of Man" was published, which examined the history of the formation of monotheism in pre-Christian cults. In 1970, his fundamental work began to be published - the seven-volume History of Religion. Among other works of Alexander Men - "Bibliological Dictionary", "Isagogy", interpretation of the Apocalypse and other works. Many of them drew sharp criticism from prominent figures of the Orthodox Church. Especially great condemnation was caused by the views of Alexander Men on the common origins of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, his attitude to the ideas of ecumenism, the theory of evolution and much more. Father Alexander is directly accused

whether in heresy, flirting with the occult, Catholic proselytism, and even listed the reasons for his excommunication. Similar accusations were made against me from the Catholic Church.

In the early eighties, Alexander Men got the opportunity to openly publish his works and speak to a wide audience. He took part in the creation of the magazine Mir Biblii, founded the Public Orthodox University and the Russian Bible Society, the Charity Group charitable foundation at the Children's Clinical Hospital, performed in student clubs and even in the society of psychics, drawing new waves of criticism. It is difficult to say from whom the threats came, which the priest began to receive regularly. However, on September 9, 1990, on the way from his home to the morning service, Father Alexander was attacked by two unknown persons, one of whom inflicted mortal wounds on him. To investigate the case, a special group was created, headed by the most authoritative Lieutenant General Panin, but to this day it remains unsolved. Natalya Fedorovna Men-Grigorenko is currently the head of one of the temples near Moscow and the founder of the Alexander Men charitable foundation. Father Alexander's daughter, Elena, is engaged in icon painting, his son Mikhail is a prominent politician, currently holds the post of Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation

Alexander Vladimirovich Men (January 22, 1935 - September 9, 1990) - priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, theologian, preacher, author of books on theology and history of Christianity and other religions.

Biography
Born in Moscow, into a family of Jewish origin: both by mother and father. As a child, my father studied at a religious Jewish school; mother from her youth was drawn to Christianity.
At the age of six months, he was baptized with his mother. The baptism was performed in secret by the priest of the Catacomb Church, Father Seraphim. He studied at the Moscow Fur and Fur Institute (1953-1954), then at the Irkutsk Agricultural Institute (1955-1958), from where he was expelled for religious beliefs. A month after his expulsion, on June 1, 1958, he was ordained a deacon, and on September 1, 1960 (after graduating from the Leningrad Theological Seminary) - a priest. In 1965 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy by correspondence.
Served in a number of parishes near Moscow. A unique combination of broad erudition, openness to secular culture, science, to other confessions, non-Christian religions and deep church rootedness, have nominated me among the leading Christian preachers.
The main work of Father Alexander is the book about Jesus "The Son of Man", as well as the series "In Search of the Way, Truth and Life", in which the author considers the history of non-Christian religions as a path to Christianity in the struggle between magic and monotheism.
Father Alexander is also the author of the books "Sacrament, Word, Image", "Where Did All This Come From?", "How to Read the Bible?" and numerous articles, mainly of preaching and apologetic content. Father Alexander's works have been translated into English, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian and French.
Father Alexander Men is one of the founders of the Christian "samizdat" of the 1960s. Until the mid-1980s, his works were published mainly abroad (under the pseudonyms E. Svetlov, A. Bogolyubov, A. Pavlov). Men was a spiritual mentor and often a godfather for many “dissidents” of the 1970s and 80s, although he himself refrained from active human rights activities, seeing his mission in spiritual enlightenment.
Since the mid-1980s, Father Alexander Men has been one of the most popular Christian preachers (including in the media). He was one of the founders of the Russian Bible Society in 1990, the Public Orthodox University, the World of the Bible magazine. Father Alexander actively supported charitable activities, standing at the origins of the creation of the Mercy Group at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, which was later named after him and became one of the significant charitable projects.
Some representatives of Orthodox and near-Orthodox circles assessed the activities of Father Alexander as "non-Orthodox."
During speeches, Father Alexander repeatedly received threatening notes.
“On May 5, 1998, by order of Nikon, Bishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, the books of the famous Orthodox theologians of the 20th century, Protopresbyters Alexander Schmemann, John Meyendorff, Nikolai Afanasyev and Archpriest Alexander Men, were confiscated from the library and students of the Diocesan Theological School, and they were burnt in the courtyard. After that, three priests of the diocese were asked to curse the "heresies" of the aforementioned authors, securing this with an oath before the Cross and the Gospel. "
Father Alexander was killed on September 9, 1990. That morning he was in a hurry to go to church: he had to be in time for the liturgy. A man ran up to him and handed him a note. Men took his glasses out of his pocket and began to read. At this time, another man jumped out of the bushes and hit him with force from behind with an ax. Bleeding, the priest went to the station. Then, losing strength, he turned back towards the house. He managed to crawl to the gate.

"Who are you, Father Alexander?" the woman asked. “No, no one, myself!” Men answered: he did not want or could not name his killers.
Despite the personal orders of the presidents of the USSR and Russia, the murder remained unsolved.